Which insect, native to central Africa, is notorious for causing the sleeping sickness?
"tsetse-flies are transmitters of various species of ""Trypanosoma"" protozoa causing animal trypanosomiasis (= nagana) in cattle, and other forms of trypanosomiasis in sheep, goats, pigs, camels and horses. Tsetse-flies are also notorious as transmitters of the ""Trypanosoma"" species causing African trypanosomiasis (= sleeping sickness) in humans. Important genera include ""Calliphora"", ""Lucilia"", ""Chrysomya"", ""Cochliomyia"" and ""Wohlfahrtia"". All calliphorid flies are all large, robust, strong day-time fliers. Their antennae are as described above for house-flies and others in the Family Muscidae. Adult flies in family Calliphoridae feed as adults of both sexes mostly on proteinaceous liquids found on surface of decaying animal"
"African trypanosomiasis African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, is an insect-borne parasitic disease of humans and other animals. It is caused by protozoa of the species ""Trypanosoma brucei"". There are two types that infect humans, ""Trypanosoma brucei gambiense"" (TbG) and ""Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense"" (TbR). TbG causes over 98% of reported cases. Both are usually transmitted by the bite of an infected tsetse fly and are most common in rural areas. Initially, in the first stage of the disease, there are fevers, headaches, itchiness and joint pains. This begins one to three weeks after the bite. Weeks to months later"
"various vertebrate species including humans, antelopes, bovine cattle, camels, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs. These diseases are caused by several different trypanosome species that may also survive in wild animals such as crocodiles and monitor lizards. The diseases have different distributions across the African continent, so are transmitted by different species. This table summarizes this information: Human African trypanosomiasis, also called sleeping sickness, is caused by trypanosomes of the species ""Trypanosoma brucei"". This disease is invariably fatal unless treated but can almost always be cured with current medicines, if the disease is diagnosed early enough. Sleeping sickness begins with a"
"Winterbottom's sign Winterbottom's sign is seen in the early phase of African trypanosomiasis, a disease caused by the parasites ""Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense"" and ""Trypanosoma brucei gambiense"" which is more commonly known as African sleeping sickness. Dr. Anthony Martinelli describes Winterbottom's sign as the swelling of lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy) along the back of the neck, in the posterior cervical chain of lymph nodes, as trypanosomes travel in the lymphatic fluid and cause inflammation. It may be suggestive of cerebral infection. The term Winterbottom's sign derives from descriptions of the posterior cervical lymphadenopathy associated with African trypanosomiasis made by a slave trader"
"using the sign to weed out the ill. Winterbottom's sign Winterbottom's sign is seen in the early phase of African trypanosomiasis, a disease caused by the parasites ""Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense"" and ""Trypanosoma brucei gambiense"" which is more commonly known as African sleeping sickness. Dr. Anthony Martinelli describes Winterbottom's sign as the swelling of lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy) along the back of the neck, in the posterior cervical chain of lymph nodes, as trypanosomes travel in the lymphatic fluid and cause inflammation. It may be suggestive of cerebral infection. The term Winterbottom's sign derives from descriptions of the posterior cervical lymphadenopathy associated"
"Gyrostigma rhinocerontis Gyrostigma rhinocerontis (also known as the Rhinoceros stomach botfly) is the largest fly species known in Africa. It is a parasite of the Black Rhinoceros and the White Rhinoceros. Because the fly depends on the rhinoceros for reproduction, its numbers declined steeply as the black and white rhinos faced extinction. Like the rhinoceros, it must once have spread across much of sub-Saharan Africa (outside of the Congo Basin), but is today restricted to the savannas of southern and eastern Africa. The fly was originally described by English naturalist Sir Richard Owen in 1830 under the name of ""Oestrus"
"African civet The African civet (; ""Civettictis civetta"") is a large viverrid native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is considered common and widely distributed in woodlands and secondary forests. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2008. In some countries, it is threatened by hunting, and wild-caught individuals are kept for producing civetone for the perfume industry. The African civet is primarily nocturnal and spends the day sleeping in dense vegetation, but wakes up at sunset. It is a solitary mammal with a unique coloration: the black and white stripes and blotches covering its coarse"
"Joseph Everett Dutton Joseph Everett Dutton (9 September 1874 – 27 February 1905) was a British Parasitologist who discovered one of the trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness. He died in the Congo Free State at the age of 30 from tick fever, or African relapsing fever, while investigating the disease, which is caused by a ""spirillum"" that was later named ""Borrelia duttoni"". Joseph Everett Dutton was born on 9 September 1874 in Upper Bebington, Cheshire. His father was John Dutton, a chemist, and his mother was Sarah Ellen Moore. He was their fifth son. He attended The King's School, Chester"
"of a lack of travel between indigenous people, sleeping sickness in humans had been limited to isolated pockets. This changed after Arab slave traders entered central Africa from the east, following the Congo River, bringing parasites along. Gambian sleeping sickness travelled up the Congo River, and then further east. An Arab writer of the 14th century left the following description in the case of a sultan of the Malli Kingdom: ""His end was to be overtaken by the sleeping sickness (""illat an-nawm"") which is a disease that frequently befalls the inhabitants of these countries especially their chieftains. Sleep overtakes one"
"diseases, the most serious of which are: malaria, sleeping sickness and yellow fever. Malaria is the most deadly environmental disease in Africa. It is transmitted by a genus of mosquito (anopheles mosquito) native to Africa, and can be contracted over and over again. There is not yet a vaccine for malaria, which makes it difficult to prevent the disease from spreading in Africa. Recently, the dissemination of mosquito netting has helped lower the rate of malaria. Yellow fever is a disease also transmitted by mosquitoes native to Africa. Unlike malaria, it cannot be contracted more than once. Like chicken pox,"
"Trioza erytreae The African citrus psyllid (""Trioza erytreae"") is a sap-sucking insect, a hemipteran bug in the family Triozidae. It is an important pest of citrus, being one of only two known vectors of the serious citrus disease, ""huanglongbing"" or citrus greening disease. It is widely distributed in Africa. The other vector is the Asian citrus psyllid, ""Diaphorina citri"". The citrus psyllid is found in Cameroon, Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Réunion, Rwanda, South Africa, St. Helena, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also found in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the Macaronesian archipelagos of Madeira"
"damages DNA. These defenses limit the population of infected flies. Tsetse fly Tsetse ( , or ), sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus Glossina, which are placed in their own family, Glossinidae. The tsetse are obligate parasites that live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals. Tsetse have been extensively studied because of their role in transmitting disease. They have a prominent economic impact in sub-Saharan Africa as the biological vectors of trypanosomes, which cause human sleeping"
"five days before expiring. Gyrostigma rhinocerontis Gyrostigma rhinocerontis (also known as the Rhinoceros stomach botfly) is the largest fly species known in Africa. It is a parasite of the Black Rhinoceros and the White Rhinoceros. Because the fly depends on the rhinoceros for reproduction, its numbers declined steeply as the black and white rhinos faced extinction. Like the rhinoceros, it must once have spread across much of sub-Saharan Africa (outside of the Congo Basin), but is today restricted to the savannas of southern and eastern Africa. The fly was originally described by English naturalist Sir Richard Owen in 1830 under"
"thousand people attended his burial, mostly local people whom he had treated and whose respect he had earned. It took two months for the news of his death to be carried to the nearest telegraph station. Citations Sources Joseph Everett Dutton Joseph Everett Dutton (9 September 1874 – 27 February 1905) was a British Parasitologist who discovered one of the trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness. He died in the Congo Free State at the age of 30 from tick fever, or African relapsing fever, while investigating the disease, which is caused by a ""spirillum"" that was later named ""Borrelia duttoni""."
"and South Africa. Rhipicephalus gertrudae Rhipicephalus gertrudae is a species of tick in the family Ixodidae. The specific epithet honors South African parasitologist Dr. Gertrud Theiler. The species was first circumscribed by Dr. Brouria Feldman-Muhsam. ""R. gertrudae"" is moderate-sized, about 4 mm in length, heavily punctate, and reddish-brown in color. Adults are generalist hematophagous parasites, feeding primarily on domestic and wild herbivores such as cattle and sheep; the immatures are specialist hematophagous parasites of murid rodents. Heavy infestations have caused infant mortality in Chacma baboons in Namibia, through infestation of the muzzle causing inflammation of the nose and mouth that"
"""Volvox"". In 1907 she was awarded a Carnegie Fellowship and moved to Ceylon to study trypanosome infections in reptiles. She then joined the staff at the Lister Institute in London under Professor Edward Alfred Minchin from 1910 to 1911. She spent time as protozoologist to what was then the Uganda Protectorate from 1911 to 1914 where she researched the lifecycle of ""Trypanosoma gambiense"" (which causes African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness) in blood and in its insect carrier, the tsetse fly, publishing her ground-breaking results. She is claimed to have bicycled through the forests of Uganda on this work, according to"
"in 1843, after parasites in the blood of frogs. In 1903, David Bruce identified the protozoan parasite and the tsetse fly vector of African trypanosomiasis. The monophyly of the genus ""Trypanosoma"" is not supported by a number of different methods. Rather, the American and African trypanosomes constitute distinct clades, implying that the major human disease agents ""T. cruzi"" (cause of Chagas’ disease) and ""T. brucei"" (cause of African sleeping sickness) are not closely related to each other. Phylogenetic analyses suggest an ancient split into a branch containing all Salivarian trypanosomes and a branch containing all non-Salivarian lineages. The latter branch"
"sleeping sickness. Important questions about antigenic variation are also relevant for such research areas as developing a vaccine against HIV and predicting the next influenza pandemic. Relapsing fever has been described since the days of the ancient Greeks. After an outbreak in Edinburgh in the 1840s, relapsing fever was given its name, but it would not be another decade until the etiology of the disease would be better understood. The physician David Livingstone is credited with the first account in 1857 of a malady associated with the bite of soft ticks in Angola and Mozambique. In 1873, Otto Obermeier first"
"unaware of its presence. They do not normally fly out of the roost until total darkness has descended and they normally feed until they have satiated themselves, usually for around two hours before returning. They sometimes share roosts with the smaller Cape serotine, from which it may be distinguished by its larger wing size and faster flight. They prey mostly on beetles, but also plant-sucking bugs, flies, flying termites, moths and lacewings. African yellow bat The African yellow bat (""Scotophilus dinganii"") is a species of bat in the family Vespertilionidae, the vesper bats. Other common names include African yellow house"
"of paralysis. The antivenom used in case of a bite is a polyvalent antivenom produced by the South African Institute of Medical Research (SAIMR). Cape cobra The Cape cobra (""Naja nivea""), also called the yellow cobra, is a moderate-sized, highly venomous species of cobra inhabiting a wide variety of biomes across southern Africa including arid savanna, fynbos, bushveld, desert and semi-desert regions. The species is diurnal and is a feeding generalist, preying on a number of different species and carrion. Predators of this species include birds of prey, honey badgers and various species of mongoose. The Cape cobra is also"
"""Pristhesancus plagipennis"". The edible stink bug ""Encosternum delegorguei"" is consumed as human food in Zimbabwe and among the Venda people of South Africa. The insects are light green in color and quite large, averaging at in length. They are most widely known in South Africa as ""thongolifha"", though they are also known as ""tsonônô"". In Zimbabwe, they are known as ""harurwa"" or ""harugwa"". ""Encosternum delegorguei"" are collected just before dawn when they are least active and are easier to catch. They are caught carefully, taking care not to kill them. The chemicals released by the bugs can often stain the"
"Frontières and the World Health Organization, signed a long-term agreement to manufacture and donate the drug. In addition to sleeping sickness, previous names have included negro lethargy, maladie du sommeil (Fr), Schlafkrankheit (Gr), African lethargy, and Congo trypanosomiasis. The genome of the parasite has been sequenced and several proteins have been identified as potential targets for drug treatment. Analysis of the genome also revealed the reason why generating a vaccine for this disease has been so difficult. ""T. brucei"" has over 800 genes that make proteins the parasite ""mixes and matches"" to evade immune system detection. Using a genetically modified"
"number of described African species is about 17,000. Natalimyzidae, a new family of acalyptrate flies has been recently described from South Africa. ""Anopheles gambiae"", ""Aedes aegypti"" and Tsetse fly are important vectors of diseases. 1600 species of bees and 2000 species of ants among other Hymenopterans are known from Africa. There live also 3,607 species of butterflies, being the best known group of insects. The caterpillars of mopani moth are part of the South African cuisine. Among the numerous species of African beetles are the famous sacred scarab, the centaurus beetle, the manticora tiger beetle and enormous Goliath beetles. Hotspots"
"Gonometa postica Gonometa postica (Walker, 1855), known commonly as the African wild silk moth, burn worm, and brandwurm, is a large species of African moth belonging to the family Lasiocampidae. The genus ""Gonometa"" boasts some very large moths and larvae; ""Gonometa sjostedti"" from Africa has a larva 16 centimeters long, for example. Most of the Lasiocampidae are highly sexually dimorphic. In ""G. postica"" the forewing of the male measures 21–25 mm and of the female 35–42 mm. ""Gonometa postica"" and ""Argema mimosae"" cocoons are traditionally used as ankle rattles in southern Africa by San and Bantu tribes. They are filled"
"Aardvark The aardvark ( ; ""Orycteropus afer"") is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike other insectivores, it has a long pig-like snout, which is used to sniff out food. It roams over most of the southern two-thirds of the African continent, avoiding areas that are mainly rocky. A nocturnal feeder, it subsists on ants and termites, which it will dig out of their hills using its sharp claws and powerful legs. It also digs to create burrows"
"requested Sambon to investigate sleeping sickness in Uganda. They sent Aldo Castellani under the Royal Society Commission. Castellani discovered that patients with sleeping sickness had a protozoan parasite (""Trypanosoma"") in their cerebro-spinal fluid, and sometimes together with bacterial (""Strecptococcus"") infection. Castellani published his findings in 1903. Immediately, Sambon correctly interpreted that the ""Trypanosoma"" was the causative parasite and that it was transmitted by tsetse fly. Pellagra was epidemic in Italy since the late 18th century throughout the 19th century, and was spreading to America. By the late 19th century it was generally believed that it was due to maize consumption."
"Louise Pearce Louise Pearce (March 5, 1885 – August 10, 1959) was an American pathologist at the Rockefeller Institute who helped develop a treatment for African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). Sleeping sickness was a fatal epidemic which had devastated areas of Africa, killing two-thirds of the population of the Uganda protectorate between 1900 and 1906 alone. With chemists Walter Abraham Jacobs and Michael Heidelberger and pathologist Wade Hampton Brown, Pearce worked to develop and test arsenic-based drugs for its treatment. In 1920, Louise Pearce traveled to the Belgian Congo where she designed and carried out a drug testing protocol for human"
"Manticora (genus) Manticora (often misspelled Mantichora (Latin term for ""manticore"") following an unjustified spelling change in 1837) is a well-known genus of tiger beetle that is endemic to Africa. Its members are the largest of the subfamily. All species are darkly colored, nocturnal, and flightless. Males usually have exaggerated mandibles compared to the females, used for clasping during copulation. This genus was among the first formally described by a pupil of Carl Linnaeus, Johan Christian Fabricius, in 1792. The name ""Manticora"" comes from the ancient Persian for the legendary man-eating Manticore. The first species of ""Manticora"" known to science was"
"Tsetse fly Tsetse ( , or ), sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus Glossina, which are placed in their own family, Glossinidae. The tsetse are obligate parasites that live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals. Tsetse have been extensively studied because of their role in transmitting disease. They have a prominent economic impact in sub-Saharan Africa as the biological vectors of trypanosomes, which cause human sleeping sickness and animal trypanosomiasis. Tsetse are multivoltine and long-lived, typically"
"Gyrostigma Gyrostigma is a genus of botfly which parasitize rhinoceroses. The best-known species is ""Gyrostigma rhinocerontis"", the rhinoceros stomach botfly, which develops in the stomach lining of the Black Rhinoceros and White Rhinoceros of Africa, and the adult of which is the largest fly known in Africa. Two other species are known. ""G. conjungens"" was discovered in the stomach of a Kenyan Black Rhinoceros in 1901, but has not been observed since 1961. The other is ""G. sumatrensis"", which was found in a captive Sumatran Rhinoceros in 1884 but has not been observed since. Due to the difficulty of observing"
"Cape serotine The Cape serotine (""Neoromicia capensis"") is a species of vesper bat occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. 'Serotine' is from Latin 'serotinus' meaning ‘of the evening'. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly Djibouti. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, dry savanna, and moist savanna, grassland,"
"virus, West Nile virus, and Rift Valley fever virus. It is also a vector of Zika virus, the causal agent of Zika fever. Aedes africanus Aedes africanus is a species of mosquito that is found on the continent of Africa with the exclusion of Madagascar. ""Aedes aegypti"" and ""Aedes africanus"" are the two main yellow fever vector species in Zambia. ""Aedes africanus"" is mainly found in tropical forests not near wetlands. This mosquito has distinct white and black stripes along its body which help differentiate the genus from others in this family. Females of this species are ectoparasites and can"
"Echis ocellatus Echis ocellatus, known by the common names West African carpet viper and ocellated carpet viper, is a venomous species of viper endemic to West Africa. No subspecies are currently recognized. It is responsible for more human fatalities due to snakebite than all other African species combined. An antivenom called ""Echitab-plus-ICP"" is manufactured by the Costa Rican Instituto Clodomiro Picado and another called ""EchiTabG"" is manufactured by MicroPharm Ltd in the UK. The specific name, ""ocellatus"", is a reference to the distinctive series of ""eye-spots"" (ocelli) which runs the length of the body. The maximum total length (body +"