ABSTRACT
Mass releases of sterilized male tsetse fl ies are used to control tsetse fl ies, the main vector of sleeping sickness in Africa. Laboratory reared sterilized males when released in nature mate with wild virgin females and prevent their eggs from fertilization. Eggs developed by such mated females do not hatch and decrease the wild population of tsetse fl ies in areas with endemic sleeping sickness. It is an expensive and laborious ecologically friendly method resulting in absolute control. To make this very complex biological control method effective in nature, quality-control of the sterilized males is conducted by checking their weight, size, and fl ight performance. During mating tsetse fl ies are attracted to each other by selecting three acoustic sounds including mating call sound probably produced by males, blood feeding sound produced by both sexes, and larvi position sound of females. Thus it was considered essential to develop an acoustic sound detection criterion for quality control of the above healthy mass reared sterile males. Glossina pallidipes and Glossina morsitans were used to select the acoustic sound preferred for seeking a mate. Sound produced during blood feeding was the most important acoustic sound used by tsetse fl ies for fi nding sexual partners. It took 10 years of research between two cooperating institutions, IAEA-International Atomic Energy Agency, Institut for Schallforschung der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, and Universitat Wien-Department for Evolutions biologie, to attain the above goal.
