ECOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HORSE FLIES (DIPTERA: TABANIDAE) IN ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA

Abstract

During the months of June to September 2006, collections of tabanids (Diptera:<br />Tabanidae) and ticks were conducted in the Caucasia municipality, Antioquia,<br />Colombia. Tabanids were caught on horses during daylight using hand nets and pots at<br />the ecotone zone between secondary forests and paddock habitats. Ticks were collected<br />directly from cattle by hand. The purpose of the study was to identify possible vectors<br />of bovine trypanosomosis, and register the diversity and abundance of tabanids in<br />the zone. The arthropods were brought to the laboratory for taxonomic determination<br />and protozooans searching in proboscis, midgut, and salivary glands of flies. In<br />the case of ticks, protozoans were searched in hemolymph. One hundred and forty<br />tabanids belonging to four genera and nine species were caught. Among the species,<br />Lepiselaga crassipes was the most abundant (43.6%), with the highest abundance<br />in July and a biting peak at 14:00 h. The highest diversity of tabanids was observed<br />during September. Three tabanids were found infected with flagellates morphologically<br />compatible with Trypanosoma vivax. 315 ticks belonging to Boophilus microplus<br />species were collected, all of them negative to flagellates. These results suggest T.<br />vivax transmission by tabanids in the study area. However, the specific status of<br />the parasites should be determined by molecular techniques and the transmission<br />mechanism should be established too by controlled studie