Species identification of adult African blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) of forensic importance:

Necrophagous blowflies can provide an excellent source of evidence for forensic entomologists and are also relevant to problems in public health, medicine, and animal health. However, access to useful information about these blowflies is constrained by the need to correctly identify the flies, and the poor availability of reliable, accessible identification tools is a serious obstacle to the development of forensic entomology in the majority of African countries. In response to this need, a high-quality key to the adults of all species of forensically relevant blowflies of Africa has been prepared, drawing on high-quality entomological materials and modern focus-stacking photomicroscopy. This new key can be easily applied by investigators inexperienced in the taxonomy of blowflies and is made available through a highly accessible online platform. Problematic diagnostic characters used in previous keys are discussed

Species Diversity, Abundance and Seasonal Occurrence of Some Biting Flies in Southern Kaduna, Nigeria.

A survey of biting dipterans was conducted in Kaura LGA of Kaduna State between November 2000 and October 2001. Fifteen species of biting flies were caught in two families, Tabanidae and Muscidae distributed in the following 4 genera: Tabanus 10, Haematopota 2, Chrysops 1 and Stomoxys 2. The genus Stomoxys represented by Stomoxys calcitrans Linnaeus and S. nigra Macquart had the highest abundance (62.5%), followed by the Tabanus (34.6%), Haematopota (1.8%) and Chrysops (1.1%). Generally, more flies were collected during the wet (1431; 85.1%) than the dry season (250; 14.9%) with some species occurring all year round. The widespread presence of haematophagous dipterans in the study area suggest that they could be playing a greater role in disease transmissions than previously thought. Optimum temperatures that stimulate rapid reproduction appear to fall between mean temperatures of 22.8-24.1°C. The species showed a general increase in relative abundance during the wet season and a decline in the dry season. No new country record was found