Seasonal abundance of Tabanidae (Diptera) on a farm in southern France

Abstract

The Tabanidae family consists globally of 4,400 known species of biting flies, with 83 species in France. Horseflies were captured with 7 H-Traps on a farm near Montélimar, southern France, during 21 wk from May to September 2017. In total, 54,618 specimens were captured belonging to the Chrysopsinae, Pangoniinae and Tabaninae subfamilies. Six genera were identified: Atylotus, Chrysops, Dasyrhamphis, Haematopota, Pangonius and Tabanus. These specimens were distributed into 19 species. Tabanus was the most important genus with 14 species, but Haematopota italica was
the most abundant with 61% of all captures followed by Tabanus glaucopis (11%), T. nemoralis (8%), T.quatuornotatus (4%), T. exclusus (4%) and T. bromius (3%). All the other taxa each representedless than 2% of captures. The seasonal activity showed two peaks of abundance, with one at theend of May involving precocious species such as T. nemoralis, T. quatuornotatus, T. cordiger andT.autumnalis and the second at the end of August involving T. glaucopis, T. eggeri, T. paradoxus,Atylotus loewianus and a large peak of Haematopota italica with 11,796 specimens in 1 wk. On threeoccasions in July and August, 15 species were observed in the same week. For the first time insouthern France, these results provide data on the phenology and abundance of horseflies. For thefuture and a better strategy for control of these bloodsucking insects, it would be useful to evaluateother types of traps for the capture of adults and to study larval development sites.