Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e4834 doi: 10.3897/BDJ.3.e4834 Taxonomic Paper Black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) of Turkish Thrace, with a new record for Turkey Ümit Davut Şirin‡, Hakan Çalışkan‡‡, Yalçın Şahin ‡ Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Science and Art, Biology Department, Eskişehir, Turkey Corresponding author: Ümit Davut Şirin ([email protected]) Academic editor: Gunnar Kvifte Received: 06 Mar 2015 | Accepted: 20 Apr 2015 | Published: 22 Apr 2015 Citation: Şirin Ü, Çalışkan H, Şahin Y (2015) Black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) of Turkish Thrace, with a new record for Turkey. Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e4834. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.3.e4834 Abstract Background This paper includes 2742 specimens of 18 species of black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) collected from 132 lotic sites in Turkish Thrace, the European part of Turkey, in the early summer of 2002 and 2003 and the spring of 2005 and 2006. New information All species are recorded from this region for the first time, and Metacnephia nigra (Rubtsov, 1940) is a new record for Turkey. Distributional and taxonomical remarks are given for each species. Keywords Black flies, Thrace, Turkey, biodiversity © Şirin Ü et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. & Şirin Ü et al. Introduction Black flies (Simuliidae) are blood-sucking flies, considered the third most medically and veterinary important arthropod group (Adler et al. 2004). A total of 2,177 living, formally described species of black flies are currently recognized as valid, with new species continuing to be discovered (Adler and Crosskey 2015) The immature stages play an important ecological role in streams and rivers where they often dominate the benthos (Crosskey 1990). TheTurkish simuliid fauna is not well known, although investigations have increased in the past 15 years. The first report of the family in Anatolia was by Austen (1925) who described Simulium pulchripes from the Asiatic part of Çanakkale Province. After 50 years, a second species, Simulium caucasicum (as Odagmia ornata caucasica), was recorded by Jedlićka (1975) from Çanakkale and Afyon Provinces. In the second edition of Limnofauna Europea (Zwick 1978), three species, Simulium bezzii, S. balcanicum and S. pseudequinum (as mediterraneum), were recognized from Anatolia (“Kl. Asien”) (Crosskey and Zwick 2007). Kazancı and Clergue-Gazeau (1990) published a detailed study of Turkish black flies and recorded 21 species from Anatolia. In a later paper, they added ecological data and species records (Clergue-Gazeau and Kazancı 1992). An outbreak of S. bezzii in eastern Anatolia in Erzurum Province was reported by Özbek et al. (1995). Balık et al. (2002) recorded S. angustitarse from Dikili District of İzmir Province. Ümit Şirin completed his doctoral thesis on black flies in the Upper Sakarya River basin in northwestern Anatolia and published eight new records for Turkey (Sirin and Sahin 2005). An account of the Turkish Simuliidae, with nine new records and a checklist of 40 species, was published by Crosskey and Zwick (2007). A second checklist included 63 species from previous publications and new records was published by Kazancı and Ertunç (2008). Çağlar and İpekdal (2009), however, indicated that 45 species were known from Turkey. The most recent record from Turkey was reported by Kalafat and Şirin (2011). The latest version of the “Inventory of World Blackflies” lists 51 species for Turkey (Adler and Crosskey 2015). Turkish Thrace, the European part of the country, is divided from Asia Minor by the Turkish straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles). It is bounded by Bulgaria to the north, Greece to the west, the Black Sea to the northeast and Marmara and the Aegean Sea to the south. The largest mountain range is Yıldız, about 1031 m above sea level. The Meriç and Tunca Rivers from Bulgaria and the Arda River from Greece cross the region and empty into the Aegean Sea. Wetlands in the region provide resting and staging areas for birds that migrate between Europe and Asia. Agriculture uses modern technology in the vast lowlands and productive plains of the region. Pollution from agriculture, industry and excessive population growth affects a large portion of the freshwater ecosystems (Erdoğan and Güher 2012). Most faunal records of Turkish black flies are from Anatolia, the Asian part of the country, and there is only one previous record [Simulium ornatum Meigen s.l. from İstanbul; (Zwick 2007)] dealing with black flies in the European part of Turkey. We report 18 species of black flies from Turkish Thrace, as well as one of from Turkey, for the first time. Black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) of Turkish Thrace, with a new record ... + Materials and methods Study material was based on aquatic stages and reared adults from 132 rivers, streams and springs in the region (Fig. 1). The material included 2742 specimens (1168 larvae, 1369 pupae, 204 pharate adults and 47 reared adults) and was deposited in the LAB). Figure 1. Map of collecting sites for black flies in Turkish Thrace. Suppl. material 1. Larvae and pupae were collected into 80% ethanol, and reared flies with their pupal exuviae also were fixed in ethanol. For each species, the numbers of larvae, pupae and adults collected at a sampling site on a given date are recorded in the examined material below. Material was studied according to methods described by Bass (1998), with the aid of a stereomicroscope (Leica MZ 16). Identifications were made using the keys and descriptions by Rubtsov (1956), Knoz (1965), Terteryan (1968), Crosskey (2002), Bass (1998), Crosskey and Malicky (2001), Yankovsky (1995), Crosskey and Zwick (2007) and Jedlićka et al. (2004). The nomenclature follows that of Adler and Crosskey (2015). Taxon treatments Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov, 1954 Materials a. scientificName: Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov,1954; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Prosimulium; scientificNameAuthorship: Djafarov,1954; continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Kırklareli; county: Merkez; locationRemarks: 46; verbatimLatitude: 41° 4 Şirin Ü et al. 49'48.43"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°10'42.01"E; eventDate: 04/23/2005; lifeStage: 43 pupae, 6 larvae; identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd-1 b. scientificName: Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov,1954; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Prosimulium; scientificNameAuthorship: Djafarov,1954; continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Kırklareli; county: Kofçaz; locationRemarks: 49; verbatimLatitude: 41° 55'33.95"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°9'48.15"E; eventDate: 04/23/2005; lifeStage: 33 pupae, 6 larvae; identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd-2 c. scientificName: Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov,1954; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Prosimulium; scientificNameAuthorship: Djafarov,1954; continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Kırklareli; county: Kofçaz; locationRemarks: 50; verbatimLatitude: 41° 56'53.66"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°9'42.23"E; eventDate: 04/23/2005; lifeStage: 6 pupae, 1 larvae; identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd-3 d. scientificName: Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov,1954; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Prosimulium; scientificNameAuthorship: Djafarov,1954; continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Kırklareli; county: Kofçaz; locationRemarks: 51; verbatimLatitude: 41° 56'22.44"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°5'33.09"E; eventDate: 04/23/2005; lifeStage: 11 pupae, 6 larvae; identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd-4 e. scientificName: Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov,1954; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Prosimulium; scientificNameAuthorship: Djafarov,1954; continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Edirne; county: Lalapaşa; locationRemarks: 53; verbatimLatitude: 41° 58'26.47"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°0'28.78"E; eventDate: 04/23/2005; lifeStage: 12 pupae, 1 larvae; identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd-5 f. scientificName: Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov,1954; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Prosimulium; scientificNameAuthorship: Djafarov,1954; continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Tekirdağ; county: Şarköy; locationRemarks: 82; verbatimLatitude: 40° 41'28.95"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°5'45.01"E; eventDate: 04/24/2005; lifeStage: 4 pupae, 1 larvae; identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd-6 g. scientificName: Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov,1954; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Prosimulium; scientificNameAuthorship: Djafarov,1954; continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Tekirdağ; county: Şarköy; locationRemarks: 83; verbatimLatitude: 40° 46'21.52"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°3'32.09"E; eventDate: 04/24/2005; lifeStage: 4 pupae, 2 larvae; identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd-7 h. scientificName: Prosimulium rachiliense Djafarov,1954; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Prosimulium; scientificNameAuthorship: Djafarov,1954; continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Kırklareli; county: Saray; locationRemarks: 126; verbatimLatitude: