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Presented at the NABS Annual meeting, Anchorage, Alaska, 2006
in Merritt and Cummins, 4th Edition (2)
Recent Advances in the Taxonomy and Biology of Black Flies (Diptera: Simuliidae)
P.H. Adler1 and D.C. Currie2.1Department of Entomology, Soils and Plant Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-0315, 2Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C6
The simuliid fauna of North America, as currently recognized, has 255 species in 13 genera, representing a change of about 33% for species and 25% for genera since the 1996 publication of Merritt & Cummins. The most conspicuous changes at the generic level include recognition of Helodon as a genus separate from Prosimulium, synonymy of Mayacnephia with Tlalocomyia, and addition of Gigantodax to the fauna of North America. In the past 10 years, about 50 new species have been described, and a number of species names have been synonymized or resurrected from synonymy. We expect that about 50 more species, mostly cryptic species, remain to be discovered on the continent. With a few exceptions to be discussed, most areas of the continent have been well surveyed. Black flies now represent one of the best known groups of aquatic insects at the species level. Hints for successful and easy identification of black flies to genus and species will be discussed, as will hot spots of simuliid species diversity.
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