As part of a study on the performance of weathered fabrics, a replicated 8 x 8 Latin Square design trapping experiment was set in December, 1997 (rainy season) in Mwele Mdogo forest using baited Nzi traps, with an Epsilon trap as a control. This forest is quite dense with few clearings, and only one narrow access road. Using the recommendations of Vale (1998) as a guide, sites were selected intentionally to represent "good sites" (mostly forest clearings with little vegetation and almost no shade), "intermediate sites" (typically small open areas near or on the access road), and "bad sites" (thick vegetation with moderate to dense shade). Mean  catches per trap per day were  107 Glossina pallidpes (maximum 501) , 19 G. brevipalpis (86), and 1.5 G. austeni (14). Below are examples of the two extremes in site classification followed by a summary of the key result.

The graph shows deviations in mean catches relative to the catch at intermediate sites. For example, traps in large clearings caught on average 3x as many G. pallidipes as traps at intermediate sites (194 vs 63, +200%), and traps in shady sites caught 0.75x as many G. pallidipes as traps at intermediate sites (48 vs 63, -25%). Results were statistically significant for G. pallidipes and G. brevipalpis, and nearly significant for G. austeni. Similar trends were found for the few Tabanidae and nonbiting Muscidae captured, but catches were too low for useful statistical inference.

Updated
10-May-2005