Stonemyia isabellina, the tabanid fly, is a species of fly in the family Tabanidae.
|
|
Merycomyia whitneyi, the tabanid fly, is a species of deer flies in the family Tabanidae.
|
|
The Volutine stoneyian tabanid fly, Stonemyia volutina was a species of fly in family Tabanidae. It was endemic to the United States.
|
|
Bites of tabanid flies are painful. Dense populations of these flies cause severe biting stress to livestock and horses leading to reduction of gain in liveweight. These hosts may additionally suffer loss of grazing time by clustering in tight defensive packs, a situation known as fly-syndrome. Many genera of tabanid flies transmit the protozoan Trypanosoma evansi that causes in camels and horses the disease called surra.
|
|
References from SDH 1\. Abakar, Mahamat H., and Hassan H. Mahamat. “Properties and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Bacillus Anthracis Isolates from Humans, Cattle and Tabanids, and Evaluation of Tabanid as Mechanical Vector of Anthrax in the Republic of Chad.” Jordan Journal of Biological Sciences, vol.
|
|
Graber served as rector of the University of Chernivtsi in 1886-87. One of his students was Anton Ritter von Jaworowski. An organ at the posterior end of tabanid larvae is now known as Graber's organ. The function of this dark pear- shaped muscular structure is unknown.
|
|
Reid, S.A. (2002) Trypanosoma evansi control and containment in Australasia. Trends in Parasitology, 18: 219-224. These flies also transmit the protozoan T.vivax that causes in cattle the disease called nagana. Tabanid flies are also transmitters the bacteria Anaplasma marginale and A.centrale to cattle, sheep and goats, causing anaplasmosis.
|
|
Mouthparts of Tabanus horse-fly: sensory palp at left, sponging labella at center, skin-piercing elements at right. Haematopota pluvialis tabanid fly showing distinct patterns on eyes and wings. Antennae consist of three relatively short segments with asymmetric shapes. Brachyceran flies are of medium to large size and compact shape.
|
|
Two other genera — Halteridium and Simondia — are now considered to be synonyms of Haemoproteus. The protozoa are intracellular parasites that infect the erythrocytes. They are transmitted by blood sucking insects including mosquitoes, biting midges (Culicoides), louse flies (Hippoboscidae) and tabanid flies (Tabanidae). Infection with this genus is sometimes known as pseudomalaria because of the parasites' similarities with Plasmodium species.
|
|
Hosts of females include all species of mammalian livestock animals and horses. Tabanid flies have large mouthparts comprising three pairs of cutting / slashing elements that pierce skin in a superficial wound. Blood flowing from this is imbibed through a sponge-like element of the mouthparts, the labella (similar to that shown in photograph of Calliphora).Dickerson, G. & Lavoipierre, M.M.J. (1959) Studies on the methods of feeding of blood-sucking arthropods: III.
|
|
This is one of the species sometimes referred to as "spider orchid". Bartholina burmanniana is rarely found in colonies, growing in small groups or singly in a variety of habitats and soil types. Mass flowering is observed after summer bush fires remove thick vegetation, creating an opportune environment for attracting pollinators. Work undertaken in 2009 has proposed the long-proboscid tabanid fly, Philoliche rostrate, to be the pollinator of this species.
|
|
Tabanid species range from medium-sized to very large, robust insects. Most have a body length between , with the largest having a wingspan of . Deer flies in the genus Chrysops are up to long, have yellow to black bodies and striped abdomens, and membranous wings with dark patches. Horse-flies (genus Tabanus) are larger, up to in length and are mostly dark brown or black, with dark eyes, often with a metallic sheen.
|
|
Some of the brachyceran flies are important transmitters of pathogenic organisms through a route known as mechanical (or contaminative) transmission.Scoles,G.A., (2008) Comparison of the efficiency of biological transmission of Anaplasma marginale (Rickettsiales: Anaplasmataceae) by Dermacentor andersoni Stiles (Acari: Ixodidae) with mechanical transmission by the horse fly, Tabanus fuscicostatus Hine (Diptera: Muscidae). Journal of Medical Entomology 45:109-114. Desquesnes, M & Dia, M.L. (2004) Mechanical transmission of Trypanosoma vivax in cattle by the African tabanid Atylotus fuscipes.
|
|
Bartholina burmanniana is rarely found in colonies, growing in small groups or singly in a variety of habitats and soil types. While not fire-dependent, mass flowering of B. burmanniana is observed after summer bush fires remove thick vegetation, creating an opportune environment for attracting pollinators. Field work undertaken in 2009 at the Cape Peninsula by Greig Russell and Bill Liltved, has proposed the long-proboscid tabanid fly, Philoliche rostrate, to be the pollinator of this species.
|
|
The blood that flows from the wound is lapped up by another mouthpart which functions as a sponge. Horse-fly bites can be painful for a day or more; fly saliva may provoke allergic reactions such as hives and difficulty with breathing. Tabanid bites can make life outdoors unpleasant for humans, and can reduce milk output in cattle. They are attracted by reflections from water which are polarized, making them a particular nuisance near swimming pools.
|
|
Polarized light pollution is perhaps the most compelling and well-documented cue triggering ecological traps.Horvath et al., in press as of Jan, 2013 Orientation to polarized sources of light is the most important mechanism that guides at least 300 species of dragonflies, mayflies, caddisflies, tabanid flies, diving beetles, water bugs, and other aquatic insects in their search for the water bodies they require for suitable feeding/breeding habitat and oviposition sites (Schwind 1991; Horváth and Kriska 2008). Because of their strong linear polarization signature, artificial polarizing surfaces (e.g.
|
|
Tabanid fly in flight Flies are capable of great manoeuvrability during flight due to the presence of the halteres. These act as gyroscopic organs and are rapidly oscillated in time with the wings; they act as a balance and guidance system by providing rapid feedback to the wing-steering muscles, and flies deprived of their halteres are unable to fly. The wings and halteres move in synchrony but the amplitude of each wing beat is independent, allowing the fly to turn sideways. The wings of the fly are attached to two kinds of muscles, those used to power it and another set used for fine control.
|
|
Tabanids are known vectors for some blood-borne bacterial, viral, protozoan, and worm diseases of mammals, such as the equine infectious anaemia virus and various species of Trypanosoma which cause diseases in animals and humans. Species of the genus Chrysops transmit the parasitic filarial worm Loa loa between humans, and tabanids are known to transmit anthrax among cattle and sheep, and tularemia between rabbits and humans. Blood loss is a common problem in some animals when large flies are abundant. Some animals have been known to lose up to of blood in a single day to tabanid flies, a loss which can weaken or even kill them.
|
|
Ants also pollinate some kinds of flowers, but for the most part they are parasites, robbing nectar without conveying useful amounts of pollen to a stigma. Whole groups of plants, such as certain fynbos Moraea and Erica species produce flowers on sticky peduncles or with sticky corolla tubes that only permit access to flying pollinators, whether bird, bat, or insect. Tabanid fly on a thistle flower Carrion flies and flesh flies in families such as Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae are important for some species of plants whose flowers exude a fetid odor. The plants' ecological strategy varies; several species of Stapelia, for example, attract carrion flies that futilely lay their eggs on the flower, where their larvae promptly starve for lack of carrion.
|
|
Caro investigated some 18 hypotheses to explain why zebras are striped, excluding all but one of them through experimental studies. Caro's team found evidence that zebra stripes help to reduce biting by tabanid flies, but no reliable support for traditionally held hypotheses about the function of zebra stripes including camouflage, predator avoidance, heat management, or social interaction. He evaluated 18 different proposed explanations for the stripes, devising and carrying out quantitative tests to compare them. The evolutionary ecologist Tim Birkhead, writing in the Times Higher Education, praised Caro's 2006 book Zebra Stripes as "an exemplary study", and called it "one long argument", a phrase used by Darwin of his On the Origin of Species, summarizing it as "in essence a 300-page scientific paper".
|
|