The promotion of edible insects, including saturniid caterpillars as potential food source is widely gaining momentum. They are adequately rich in nutrients such as proteins, amino acids, fatty acids, and micronutrients. Despite saturniids being a traditional food source with economic benefits, information on their diversity, host plants and their potential distribution in Africa are lacking, which this study seeks to address. Edible saturniids and their host plants were characterized using specific primers (LepF1/LepR1 and 3F_KIM_F/1R_KIM_R, respectively). Maximum entropy (MaxENT) and GARP (genetic algorithm for ruleset production) models were used to characterize the potential distribution of commonly consumed saturniids under current and future climate scenarios. Seven species of saturniids were recorded from 11 host plants in Kenya: Gonimbrasia zambesina, Gonimbrasia krucki, Bunaea alcinoe, Gonimbrasia cocaulti, Gonimbrasia belina, Gynanisa nigra and Cirina forda. Two morphotypes of G. zambesina and B. alcinoe were recorded. These saturniid caterpillars occur twice a year except for G. cocaulti. Predictive models revealed that tropical and subtropical regions were potentially suitable for B. alcinoe and C. forda. The information generated from this study would be important to guide conservation efforts and their sustainable utilization as food in Africa.

African Citrus greening is a destructive disease of citrus that has been reported in South Africa since the 1920s. The disease is associated with “Candidatus Liberibacter africanus” (Laf) and is transmitted by Trioza erytreae (McClean 1974, Cook et al. 2014). The related bacteria “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus” (Las), which is associated with the much more severe Huanglongbing disease and is transmitted by Diaphorina citri, was recently reported in Ethiopia (Saponari et al. 2010). Experimentally, T. erytreae has been proven to transmit Las (Massonié et al., 1976), but natural occurrence of Las in field populations of this psyllid has not been reported. A survey was conducted for the citrus greening vector T. erytreae in the Amhara region of Ethiopia in November 2017. Trioza erytreae adults were identified as per the descriptions of OEPP/EPPO (2005). Sampling sites included large and small-scale citrus orchards (in both the highland and lowland areas), and citrus trees grown in backyard gardens. T. ery...

Tsetse fly-borne trypanosomiasis remains a significant problem in Africa despite years of interventions and research. The need for new strategies to control and possibly eliminate trypanosomiasis cannot be over-emphasized. Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) infect their hosts through the cuticle and proliferate within the body of the host causing death in about 3–14 days depending on the concentration. During the infection process, EPF can reduce blood feeding abilities in hematophagous arthropods such as mosquitoes, tsetse flies and ticks, which may subsequently impact the development and transmission of parasites. Here, we report on the effects of infection of tsetse fly (Glossina fuscipes fuscipes) by the EPF, Metarhizium anisopliae ICIPE 30 wild-type strain (WT) and green fluorescent protein-transformed strain (GZP-1) on the ability of the flies to harbor and transmit the parasite, Trypanosoma congolense. Teneral flies were fed T. congolense-infected blood for 2 h and then infected using velvet carpet fabric impregnated with conidia covered inside a cylindrical plastic tube for 12 h. Control flies were fed with T. congolense-infected blood but not exposed to the fungal treatment via the carpet fabric inside a cylindrical plastic tube. Insects were dissected at 2, 3, 5 and 7 days post-fungal exposure and the density of parasites quantified. Parasite load decreased from 8.7 × 107 at day 2 to between 8.3 × 104 and 1.3 × 105 T. congolense ml− 1 at day 3 post-fungal exposure in fungus-treated (WT and GZP-1) fly groups. When T. congolense-infected flies were exposed to either fungal strain, they did not transmit the parasite to mice whereas control treatment flies remained capable of parasite transmission. Furthermore, M. anisopliae-inoculated flies which fed on T. congolense-infected mice were not able to acquire the parasites at 4 days post-fungal exposure while parasite acquisition was observed in the control treatment during the same period. Infection of the vector G. f. fuscipes by the entomopathogenic fungus M. anisopliae negatively affected the multiplication of the parasite T. congolense in the fly and reduced the vectorial capacity to acquire or transmit the parasite.