An annotated checklist of the horse flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) of Lebanon with remarks on ecology and zoogeography: Pangoniinae and Chrysopsinae

Abstract

Knowledge of the horse fly fauna (Diptera: Tabanidae) of Lebanon is fragmentary, while the local fauna of most neighboring countries has been fairly well researched. Within the framework of the 20-year project "The ecology and zoogeography of the Lepidoptera of the Near East, " we regularly collected biting flies in the whole region, including Lebanon. During this time we recorded 14 horse fly species for two subfamilies in Lebanon: four Pangoniinae and ten Chrysopsinae. Only a single species, Chrysops flavipes Meigen, 1804, was known previously in Lebanon, but the following four Pangoniinae:

The Tabanidae (Diptera) of the Greek islands and Cyprus: An annotated checklist with remarks on ecology, zoogeography, and new records on the East Mediterranean fauna

“…The East Mediterranean is well known for its rich tabanid fauna (Leclercq, 1966a;Evenhuis & Pape, 2023), from the Greek mainland 74 species (Chvála, 2013) and from Turkey 171 species and 15 subspecies (Kılıç, 2006;Andreeva et al, 2009;Altunsoy & Kılıç, 2010;Altunsoy, 2012Altunsoy, , 2018Altunsoy & Afacan, 2014) are known. The knowledge on the Levant is at best patchy, but overall, more than 60 species can be expected from Lebanon, Jordan and Israel (Leclercq, 1966a;Müller et al, 2012a;Evenhuis & Pape, 2023;unpublished data).…”

“…Palearctic (in several subspecies). Wide spread through most of Europe including the Greek mainland, Cyclades, Dodecanese islands, Crete, eastwards to Turkey and Iran, Afghanistan to Central Asia, Russian Far East and Mongolia (Leclercq, 1960;Chvála et al, 1972;Müller et al, 2011aMüller et al, , 2012aChvála, 2013).…”

“…Palearctic. Mediterranean, in Northern Africa from Morocco to Tunisia, through southern Europe eastwards to Turkey and Iran to the south to Cyprus and the Levant as far south as Lebanon (Leclercq, 1960;Chvála et al, 1972;Müller et al, 2012a;Chvála, 2013).…”