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tsetse fly
(redirected from tzetze fly)

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tsetse fly (tsĕt`sē), name for any of several bloodsucking African flies fly, name commonly used for any of a variety of winged insects, but properly restricted to members of the order Diptera, the true flies, which includes the housefly, gnat, midge, mosquito, and tsetse fly.
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 of the genus Glossina, and in the same family as the housefly housefly, common name of the fly Musca domestica, found in most parts of the world. The housefly, a scavenger, does not bite living animals but is dangerous because it carries bacteria and protozoans that cause many serious diseases, e.g.
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. The larva of the tsetse fly develops inside the body of the mother until it is ready to pupate in the soil. A number of the 21 species can transmit to humans the trypanosomes that cause the Gambian and Rhodesian forms of African sleeping sickness (see trypanosomiasis trypanosomiasis , infectious disease caused by a protozoan organism, the trypanosome, which exists as a parasite in the blood of a number of vertebrate hosts. The three variations of the disease that predominate in humans are transmitted by an insect vector.
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; encephalitis encephalitis , general term used to describe a diffuse inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, usually of viral origin, often transmitted by mosquitoes, in contrast to a bacterial infection of the meninges (membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord), known as
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). The tsetse fly also carries the trypanosomes that cause nagana and other diseases of wild and domestic animals. Clearing the brush that the flies inhabit helps to get rid of them; DDT DDT or 2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-1,1,1,-trichloroethane, chlorinated hydrocarbon compound used as an insecticide. First introduced during the 1940s, it killed insects that spread disease and feed on crops.
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 has also been used to exterminate them. Tsetse flies are classified in the phylum Arthropoda Arthropoda [Gr.,=jointed feet], largest and most diverse animal phylum. The arthropods include crustaceans, insects, centipedes, millipedes, symphylans, pauropodans, and the extinct trilobites.
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, class Insecta, order Diptera, family Muscidae. See insect insect, invertebrate animal of the class Insecta of the phylum Arthropoda. Like other arthropods, an insect has a hard outer covering, or exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed legs. Adult insects typically have wings and are the only flying invertebrates.
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tsetse fly

Any of about 21 species (genus Glossina, family Muscidae) of African bloodsucking dipterans that are robust, sparsely bristled, and usually larger than a housefly. They have stiff, piercing mouthparts. Only two species commonly transmit the protozoan parasites (trypanosomes) that cause human sleeping sickness: G. palpalis, found primarily in dense streamside vegetation, and G. morsitans, found in more open woodlands. The female requires a sufficient blood meal to produce viable larvae, but both sexes suck blood almost daily.


tsetse fly, tzetze fly
any of various bloodsucking African dipterous flies of the genus Glossina, which transmit the pathogens of various diseases: family Muscidae

tsetse fly [′set‚sē ‚flī]
(invertebrate zoology)
Any of various South African muscoid flies of the genusGlossina;medically important as vectors of sleeping sickness or trypanosomiasis.


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