Tsetse Fly: The Milk-Making Insect That Drew the Map of Africa

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

The tsetse fly gives live birth to a larva that can outweigh its mother, feeds it internally with a substance entomologists call fly milk, and shrugs off a fly swatter. It also carries trypanosomes, single celled parasites that cause sleeping sickness in people and nagana in livestock. This episode explains how an insect the size of a fingernail came to rule roughly 10 million square kilometers of sub-Saharan Africa, turning fertile country into a green desert where farmers cannot keep the draft animals they need.

The story is stranger than a pest profile. The parasite rewires the fly's brain chemistry so it feels constantly starved and bites more often. A cattle virus brought to Eritrea in 1887 killed the herds, let thorn bush spread, and handed the fly vast new territory that colonial powers mistook for untouched wilderness and turned into famous reserves. Then came a century of countermeasures, from bulldozers dragging chains to blue and black traps and radiation sterilized males.

Both sexes feed only on vertebrate blood and can drink their own body weight in a single meal to fuel the mother's milk production.
Trypanosoma brucei shuts down an enzyme in the fly's glucose metabolism and disrupts its dopamine and serotonin, driving it to feed more.
Rinderpest reached South Africa by 1897, killing some 5.5 million cattle there, and an estimated two thirds of the Maasai died in 1891 alone.
Early conservationists called the tsetse the best game warden in Africa because its diseases kept farmers and cattle out of places like the Serengeti.
Because a female usually mates only once, releasing sterile males wiped out the fly on Unguja in Zanzibar between 1994 and 1997.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(16184)

The Art of Adult Friendship: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore how our understanding of friendship changes as we grow old...

9 Marras 18min

Summer Explained: The Science, History, and Traditions of the Warmest Season

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore summer, the season most closely associated with sunshine, ...

7 Marras 18min

Sir Patrick Stewart: From Shakespeare to Star Trek, the Life and Legacy of a Legend

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acclaim...

7 Marras 49min

Larry David: The Genius of Social Awkwardness, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and career of Larry David, the comedian, writer, ...

6 Marras 38min

Why Australian Shepherds Aren't From Australia

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the history of the Australian Shepherd, an intelligent, en...

5 Marras 45min

Labrador Retriever: From Newfoundland Fishing Dogs to Modern-Day Heroes

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the remarkable history of the Labrador Retriever, one of t...

4 Marras 53min

Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, ...

3 Marras 48min

Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where h...

2 Marras 21min