Catches of bloodsucking blackflies (Diptera: Simuliidae) tell different stories depending on sampling method

To compare different sampling techniques, blackflies were captured along six Swedish rivers in 2001 and 2002, using two fundamentally different methods: (1) daytime trapping with a vehicle-mounted net, and (2) exposure of CO 2 -baited traps. The methods were selectively different for different species of blackflies. Some species were caught relatively more frequently by vehicle trapping and others by CO 2 trapping. Only rarely were species catches proportionally similar between the two methods. We suggest that the different catch success reflects differences in host-searching behaviour in the species present and that the sampling methods are complementary

Figure 4 in The Simulium vernum group (Diptera: Simuliidae) in Europe: multiple character sets for assessing species status

Figure 4. Larval head pigmentation viewed (A) laterally and (B, C) dorsally, and (D) antenna, (E) hypostoma, and (F–J) postgenal cleft of Simulium juxtacrenobium Bass & Brockhouse, 1990; examples from Finland show variation of apotome pigmentation (B, C), and variation in postgenal cleft shape and associated pigmentation (F–J). Scale bars: 0.1 mm

Vertebrate host specificity of wild-caught blackflies revealed by mitochondrial DNA in blood.

Blood-feeding blackflies (Diptera: Simuliidae) transmit pathogens, harass vertebrate hosts and may cause lethal injuries in attacked victims, but with traditional methods it has proved difficult to identify their hosts. By matching mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences in blood collected from engorged blackflies with stored sequences in the GenBank database, relationships between 17 blackfly species and 25 species of vertebrate hosts were revealed. Our results demonstrate a predominance of large hosts and marked discrimination between blackflies using either avian or mammalian hosts. Such information is of vital interest in studies of disease transmission, coevolutionary relationships, population ecology and wildlife management