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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #310608
Title: An annotated checklist of the horse flies, deer flies, and yellow flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) of Florida

Author
item Zettel Nalen, Catherine
item Kline, Daniel - Dan
item SUTTON, BRUCE - Florida Department Of Agriculture And Consumer Services
item MULLER, GUNTER - Institute For Medical Research And Occupational Health
item CILEK, JAMES - Naval Research Laboratory

Submitted to: Florida Entomologist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/2015
Publication Date: 6/1/2015
Citation: Zettel Nalen, C.M., Kline, D.L., Sutton, B.D., Muller, G., Cilek, J.E. 2015. An annotated checklist of the horse flies, deer flies, and yellow flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) of Florida. Florida Entomologist. 98(2):479-488.

Interpretive Summary: A major project of research by scientists in the Mosquito and Fly Research Unit at the Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville, FL, is the development of surveillance technologies for biting flies that cause nuisance and potentially transmit pathogens to people and livestock. A cooperative study was conducted with scientists from both national and international agencies, to determine what species of Tabanidae might be a problem in Florida. This resulted in checking museum and personal collections to make a checklist of known species in Florida. This publication is a compilation of that checklist. It has been over 50 years since the last checklist of tabanid species in Florida was compiled. Some ecological notes are included on these species.

Technical Abstract: The family Tabanidae includes the horse flies, deer flies, and yellow flies and is considered a significant pest of livestock throughout the United States, including Florida. Tabanids can easily become a major pest of man, especially salt marsh species which are known to readily feed on humans and often inhabit coastal tourist areas, leading to significant financial expenditure for control efforts. Tabanids are capable vectors of several animal diseases such as equine infectious anemia virus, bovine leukemia virus, hog cholera virus, anaplasmosis, anthrax, tularemia and many other veterinary diseases of concern. The last compilation of the Tabanidae of Florida was published in 1964 by Calvin Jones and Darrell Anthony. Since then, several taxonomic and distributional changes have been made, as well as the addition of several state locality records. We have compiled a list of Tabanidae species currently present in the state of Florida, or potentially present in Florida based on surrounding state records, using literature surveys and personal examinations of the collections at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Gainesville, FL. Three new Florida records are presented for Tabanus reinwardtii Weidemann 1828, Chlorotabanus mexicanus (Linnaeus 1758), and Tabanus yucatanus Townsend, 1897.