
Reproductive senescence in a long-lived disease vector
We are part of a large, interdisciplinary team investigating how maternal investment in the tsetse fly shapes disease dynamics. Tsetse are remarkable flies where females give birth to live young, as large as their mother. They also transmit trypanosome parasites which cause debilitating disease in humans and livestock. Our BBSRC-funded project uses experiments in the lab, field observations and theoretical models to ask how maternal investment changes with age and nutrition, and whether this influences offspring quality and propensity to transmit disease.