Rearing and colonization of Simulium damnosum complex: September - November 1976

OI,IGIOC'ERCIJLSIS COI{M,OI ?ROGBAIIIIE RESAROII REPORIII{G - SubJect t Rearilg and. oolcrrlzation of Sfumrliun dqnposr+ complex Instltution r lt[O/OOP ?ersonnel t t.N. Rag'boulct Date of subn:tssion t December 15th L976 Period coverod. e September - l{ovenber LIl6 Stgnature of responsible offioer aatraaalataaaaaaal r .-at r J.N1 RqybouLtl OONENTS A. Genera-l Introd,uction Bo Rearing of E.1@ oomplex lanrae anci related lrrrrestj.gations earried ourt at Bor:ak6o I. Bearl-ug la:nrae fron eggs obtained. from nan-bitin€ femqlgg at Pont trerabar Introiluction Llethods Reslrlte Discusslon 2. [ota1 results obtained from relnvad{ng g.ggggo.jsuJo s.I ferna-]-es during 1976. 5. Rearing E.@gi. 0. Establlshroent of a pemanent base at Akosonbor Dr Dlspatoh of materlal to other woz{cerso E. Researoh carri.ed out at AJcosombo 1. Attempts to flld laboratory-aatirrg members of the E.jggggglg complex. 2. Me d5.scovery of the lrcsofEgC. si-uulivor"a group 1.:a Ghara 3. Attendance at meetilgso G. IYorIc planned for next quartero Aehrowledgements Refer.enoes Tables t II t -1- 4- GEEB&I llrmoDuc Tr 01\I One of the most l:nportant achievements of the periotl r.md.er re'\riew. was tt:e establishment of a pemanent base at Akosombog Dad.e possJ.ble by the support and assistance of the Ghanaian authoritj.es concerned. A oon- sid.elrable +mount of ti-rae tas a]-so spent at neetlngs Ln Geneva and at the University of tregon, near Accra. Although the above-roentioned. aotiv:Lt16s red.troed tlre time ava1lab1e for research, the experinenta-l resr:-lts obtai:retl at Boua.lt6, just prior to nov{lg to Akosonbo, rvere particularly interestirrg and. uaenpeeted.. In splte of some r:rsrroltlable d.elays new jrrvestigations at Akosombo are alrea(y well under vrayo 3. REARLNG 0F SJAI..[N0SU]I CqUEX-rEn _IAIXIAE A]'ID REIA_IF,.D IIiYESTIGATI ONS CARRE"D OUT A[ SOUAKE Ii Reari.:ae 1aryAg_Erqn eges obtaixe_d. from rna"n-bitj.qF fsru] ss CoIIeCte d. at Pont leraba a I{B,ODUCIIOt'i - It uay be seen fron earlier quarterly reports tllat Ia:rrae rearecl fronr eggs Iaid $r rtreirwad.i::grr E.jg439srn s.Ir fena-les bitjng nqn sf, Pont leraba vrere at] forxrd. to be E.-dumnos,+ srstrr (}[::e) or!. _* baur:n (SirUa) r Hovrever, betvreen L6-24th Ar4ust 1976 the tiaiJy catches at Pont treraba feJ.[ from 46 per d.ay to 5 per day. Fron 25th August nunbers stead.iJy i-r,creased to 190 per d.ay on 2nd September. In view of the possibiJiff that a new poprrlation from a d.tfferent source couf-d. have been irrvolved., Dr JoBr Davies exa.uui-ned. morphologica[y speci-uens co]-lected on 5rd Septenber. He consid.erred that ttre co]-lec- tion i-ricluded some specimens other than S._da,mnosrln and fl.Sj.rbanrrn. EoJ$lre4sg (Souure) vras su.spectedr Anengements were therefo:r.e mad.e for engorged. fenrales to be corlected on 12th and lfth september. These vrere taJcen to Bouakd for oviposition aad lanra-I rear.r.6*.(In acd.itlon, about 50 r"urfed. femql ss were corlected and prese:rred for enerry-dispersi.ve X-ray spectroscopie ana,lysis) . xPlHOpS The flies t'rere transported and stj-mulated for cnri-position usiag the techniques described i-:c. earlier reports. The l-arrae were reared 1n a large aguariu::r supplied with both an electro-magnetic stirrer and. trro aerators. ..../'.... -2- BESUT.Is Ivlost lalrae attached. themselves to the eleotro.+agneti.o follower rather than to the,aerators. A total of L7g ranrae were reared to a slze large enor.rgh for ld.entj-fication which r"ep:resents about 3O lanae per egg batoh, Ihe rearecl lartrae rvere identified. W Dr Quilldv6rd and the resqlts ale glven tn lab1e r. rt nay be seen that !.squatrog4 (gill_e) was pr€- sent ln ad.ditlon to E.darnnogu 0vile) and g.Eirbaruo (sirua). SCUSSION [his ld.entificatj-on inmsflia,tely raised ttre question of the ori6i.:a of the E.Sq,f4!9,sHgo The natter uras considered. W Dr Davj.es rvho polnted out the follorving I - (i) (,u) (ur) (r") (") rt haal been shovrn in Febn:aty a9T6 that the o1d. foor.rc of S.squallo+lu in the Orod.ara area had fgsn sl.irj.rinafsd. Asearch of larval checlrs for september shovred. that no breed.i::g had. been detected. fur this geneza-I Br€or .E,jry5gg s.1. la:rrae had been found at Fantagara ou, the Rivcr Tieo on 19th August and fortr.mateJy the ra:srae hnt. been preservedo fLrese were sent to Dr vajJme who reported. that a-lI 1arrae e:ranined vrere S.dannosun so1 (m:re). fhe onJy ot]rer breed.ing record.ed rvas at Greoban oir 5t]r August as reported. by Dr.Quoleru:eo" Ihereforr: the origi.:: of S..QqueEgg4p (A::fe) for ttre flrst ti-rae frolr eggs lald. by man-bif,ing fama.tes at ?ont Routier is und.eterrrined." Ihe rearing of S..!.qru.g3.n (niffe) for ttre flrst time from eggs laj-d by nan-bitfu:.g femar es prmrld.es incontrovertlbre evid,ence tirat the species d.ocs 1n fact bite nflrrr ftro rgla- tive\y good. larvaJ- survival obtailed pro,rides fi.uther evt- donce that a rarge aque.rirur vlith am. cleotro-aagnetlc stirrer as vrelI as acrators tend.s to give better :results than snaller vessels rrith aerators onlyr -? 2t -T9!4-le.g!*s-qblalned frou retu\'adirs S- s.Lafer,la].es d.r.uj:re 1g16 tr]1 results obtained. dr.ring 1976 are presented. in Table ro Most of these zesrrlts have been presented. before but a fel,,r lden- ti-ti-cations had. not been conpleted untlI reoent\r. Now that these have been received. and the nerv results d.escrdbed. above also obtai:red., it woul-d. seen approprlate to prEsent a.l.t 19Z6 results togetirer in a siqgre tabre for ftrtr:re referenoe and. oomparisonl Tablo r i:rcIudes orrrJ resuf-ts obtai:red. from reinyadJ,ag flies aqd. exorud.es larrae feared fron e3gs corlected. in the fielilr 5. le-lri-rg S,adersi s.&Si vrere rcared froa eggs collectecl at Feteico on 6tJr August 1976. Grpwt,}r was verrr rapid and the fi-rst pupae wure obtai,ed. on l5th A'rgust. As ls the case uiith s,,4apnosun s.1. great variati.on in rates of d.evelopnent between indlvidrre.r larrae r,-las observed." unfortr:nately r had to leave Boua.lcd befo::e most larrae had conplcted their deveropnent bu.t as pupation vras talctng place successfirlly it scened. probable that nr.uacrous adrrlts would havc bcen prod.uccd given more tine. rt would appearl therefore, that the teohniquc used. ieo a large aquarir:n vrith t,vo aerators, ls probably srrttablc for s'g4-qrs} and that this species is eary to rearr 0. ESIILBIISNEN T OF A IERI IA}tr]IT AT AXOS OI{BO Discussions urith the authoriti.es concerned l:rere held at acora a,d. Akosonbo d.uring the period 26th Au€ust to 5tt septenberr Pe:nissicn to use laborrtory facilities at the p*blic Hearfl: traboratory at Akosonbo was granted. by the ckr-icf Exesutive of tlre voLta River Authority early in october and the irrfoznation lras reoeived at ouagad.ori8ou i.:r the ralddle of the montho r took up residence at Akosorebo on r8th 0otober, havfu:€ beon kindly acoorl_ panled on the jorrrney by the Exeeuti,.^ Dtrector of the Ghana llatlona-l Orrchoee :ei-a sis f'! 6r,rn i .1, f, se . -+- Bet,veen 24th and. 29th October I mad.e a return journey by road. to Bouakd to eollect the laboratory equipment. iff office has novr been flrl\r furnished. aJrd n{f laboratory equ:lpnent installed. Shortages of certai:r basio conrlodities have caused. teraporary delays in the settiag- up of oertaj-:: itens of equ:iprnent but such minor djJficulties haye now been largely overcone. At the end. of the period. und.er revj-ew we tvere allocated. vl.ittr pernanent housing acqomnodation. Dr DISPATCH 0F I'lAtERIdL 10 OIHER ifORI$-ry 1. traryaer pupae and. adults of E.@g complex species were presented to Dr B.Y. Peterson of the Biorystenatios Research Institutel Ottavri"a, canad.a, when rre net at a meetlng jn Geneva. fhe nateria_l con- cerrred. ulas collected froro severa-I different habitats in south-eastern Ghana and is believed to contain g.danng,E1,lg (w::e) I E.giIIglUg (S:-rUa), $.lqrljlno.U (eile) , !..)ruherse, (vrrr) and E.gtlpauli (s.nao,*) . 2. Prese::ved. eggs for sHvi studies lyere given to Lfu'Ifi'rljams of llverpool Universi@, England. Er NESEASCII CA?BTE"D OUT AT AKOSOTtsO 1 AtLempts to find. laboratorv-oati.:es- rnenbers of the E.,daprlostlre conpl"x As has been pointed out i-n earlier quarterly reports the discovery of Laboratory'aating sinruliids is a necessary pre-requlsite to laboratory colonization. hrpae believed to i-nclude E. souanosun (f ilf e) and E..vakregry(yra) were therefore praeed j.n special\y designed. mati::g cages (nayuouta & Gzunel'ra1d, 1975) to d.ete:mine whether or not the adults energilg wouLd. nate i.:: captiviff. I{o nati:tg r?as observecl but as I have not yet had. tj-nce to lool< at the prese:sred. femares for the presence of spe:matophoresrthe results of this investigation wil-l have to be presented. in a later:-report. ,...,/ r... -5- 2. Tle discovenr of the Drosoi:h.Lla sjmuJ-ivora ,?roup i.:r Ghara Eggsr larrae and, pupae of the gry.gophila simulivora group of specj-es v',ere collecteti fron the River pavrnpawnr near Boti Fatlsr not far fron Alcosonbo, jn ltrovenber, j.dults vrere later obtained from some of the pupae' fhese remart-,abIe drosophi-Lj-d.s lyj-th aquatic larvae do not appear to have been recorded from Ghara. fhey are of partioular interest i-n rievr of their possible use j.:e biorogical control (Tsacas & Disney, J:gl+). F. AtmI\DAi,I@ AT IE.ETIiTGS The forlovring two neetiqgs were attended d.uring the period. rrnder IeYl-€W !- (i) rlio neeting on species complexes in vectors of diseasel held at IYHO headqr:arters, Geneva, fron 15th to 19tlr Novemberr (rr)ftre lrd neetir:g of the r.c.r.p.E, herd. at legon urrtversityl Accral fron 21rd to z6th ltrovember. rhe subject of this meetilg was rlAdvances in the stud.y of African hligratory pests.r? BotJ: nreetilgs were very irdonoative and worth the tirne spent i3 attendanoe. Whj-le i-n Geneva, the opportr.mitSr rvas taken to order certai.:: items of equ-lpment. G. WOIiK }OR IIEXT QUdtlER work duri:r6 the next quarter will be a fi;rther continuation of the long ternl progra.Eure iterri sed under this heading in the previous quarterJry report. y/ork on S.d.annosum conplex species other than E.damnosrq s. str. (tr::e) and E.Eirbarrurn (sirua) rvh:ich has been dlffi; cu-It in the past, shor-td be greatly faciJitited. by the presenee of s'lmesf, all renbers of the conplex within fai-r1y easy reach of Alrosombo. aGrr{NouLED CEI,,[0N tg r a.m gratefuL to Drs vaji-*e and. QuiJ-r-dv6r6 for id.entifyfulg the larrae, to Dr Davi-es for va-ruable d.iscusslon and aclvice Lr: ooru:ection with the Pont le::aba fLies and to the Ghanaian authorities for pertalssion to vrork at Alcosombo. ..../ aata -6- NEFENE]'ICES Bagrborrld., J.itr, gnd Gnrnewald., J. (tllil. Present Progress tol-rards the laboratory Oolonizatlon of African SinnrLjidae (liptera). dropenn6al Parasit,t 26, 155-168. Isacasl l. and Disneyl R.H.l. (tglD. Tvro newAfrj.can speeies of D{gaopru++* (lisptcra, DrosophiLidae) lvhose lawae feed on Sl-nr:Lir{a Io:vae (lipt., S jrrlrtiidae) . Troperuc.ed.r ?arasit. t 4, 760477, -{c! t\ l.\|-.-.+\otr- --l tr-- sfco{.i6,tno -1 Af-]HH r-rOHiiH t F.lOAad o ri & s. oPd .o od 0) t{ oq{ d o)b h o a o Frt} od tsH -l o q-t (0 o h'g sl .q) r0) 'drJOS!.1dd'r{t ''Bcd r{r{o. "JTAoF{fr .r{(sOql ::{ " .r{ O t{ .Pr,O o4J o)dog .r{ t{ .ild 'ra+{odof{> 4l(l)rot{obJodBt{{ia 8*-8,t{ o)o+d4.il q)(! 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