Checklist of Hippoboscidae (Diptera) from Romania

Abstract

The checklist of louse flies or keds from the family Hippoboscidae in Romania with 14 species is given. Among them, six species have been newly recorded from Romania, from Natura 2000 site “Dunele Marine de la Agigea” Natural Reserve; namely: Icosta minor (Bigot in Thomson, 1858), Ornithoica turdi (Olivier in Latreille, 1812), Ornithomya chloropus Bergroth, 1901, Ornithomya fringillina Curtis, 1836, Ornithophila gestroi (Rondani, 1878), and Ornithophila metallica (Schiner, 1864). Out of the total, seven species are autochthonous, while the other seven are probably non-native species, either spreading invasively or only occasionally being imported to Romania or migrating to the country along with their hosts. Three new host-parasite associations have been reported for the first time. Specifically, the eastern olivaceous warbler Iduna pallida (Hemprich et Ehrenberg, 1833) represents new host species for I. minor and O. turdi, while the willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus (Linnaeus, 1758) represents a new host species for O. gestroi.

Contributions to our knowledge on avian louse flies (Hippoboscidae: Ornithomyinae) with the first European record of the African species Ornithoctona laticornis

“…The other louse fly species identified in this study as Ornithomya avicularia , O. fringillina , O. biloba , O. chloropus and Ornithoica turdi have all been previously reported in Hungary [ 22 ]. The euryxenous natures of O. avicularia , O. turdi and O. fringillina have long been known, as has the host specificity of O. biloba towards the Hirundinidae family (especially the Barn Swallow) [ 10 , 13 , 16 , 22 , 36 , 37 ].…”

“…Although studies on louse flies originating from Central [ 3 ] Northern [ 14 ], Southern [ 10 ], Western [ 15 ] and Eastern Europe [ 16 ] have also been conducted, only a few of these report long-term evaluations with continuous sample collection. The number of studies conducted on avian ectoparasites steadily increased in Hungary and in other Central European countries during the previous decade [ 2 , 3 , 12 , 17 , 18 ], but studies on ornithophilic hippoboscids appear to have been neglected compared to other arthropod vectors that are generally considered epidemiologically more important (i.e.…”