The Sensory Ecology of Tsetse Flies: Neuroscience Perspectives on a Disease Vector

Tsetse flies (Glossina sp.) are important disease vectors with unique biology that makes them fascinating models to study the evolution of behaviour and its underlying neural circuits. They evolved blood-feeding in an independent event from mosquitoes, and unlike most insects, give birth to a single live offspring-rather than laying eggs. Given their impact on public health, they have been extensively studied with a strong focus on vector control. However, information on their sensory ecology and neurobiology is thinly spread across the literature. Here, we review over a hundred years of literature on tsetse sensory systems, including olfaction, vision, audition, taste, thermosensation and mechanosensation, in the context of the behaviours they drive, including host-finding, blood-feeding and mating. We embed the available data within our more detailed understanding of the sensory systems of the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster and other diptera. This sets the stage for future work on how tsetse find their hosts and reproduce, opening new avenues to understand how their sensory systems function and evolve, which in turn will inform better control strategies to reduce the burden of the diseases they transmit.