Trypanosomiasis outbreaks of great severity, both medical and veterinary, still occur. At the present time some of these outbreaks can be contained by implementation of plans based on sound knowledge of tsetse distribution. However, for many countries such knowledge is fragmentary. For this reason the second edition of tsetse distribution maps is to be regarded as provisional only, pending the availability of more accurate data. Some of the new information that has been received since 1973 is reported. It is concluded that a programme of intensive revision is needed before it can be claimed that tsetse situation in Africa is well understood.

In Upper Volta the sorghum shootfly is considered dangerous in the case of late and staggered sowing or resowing due generally to irregular rainfall in the beginning of the rainy season. When using fish meal as bait in two different traps, one placed in a humic area and another in a dry area, we followed over a period of 2 years the dynamics of the sorghum shootfly populations at Farako-Bâ. Twenty-two different species of the genus Atherigona (Rondani) were identifed, of which the commonest was A. soccata (Rondani).

Some wild hosts of the sorghum shootfly were also identified. Attention is drawn to the importance of the pest in the case of extensive cultivation of irrigated sorghum in the managed valleys of the country.