Tabanidae

Krolow, Tiago K., do Carmo, Daniel Dias D., Oliveira, Lia P. & Henriques, Augusto L., 2024, The Tabanidae (Diptera) in Brazil: Historical aspects, diversity and distribution, Zoologia (e 23074) 41, pp. 1-16 : 9

Tabanidae distribution

The distribution records of Tabanidae species in the country corroborate the observations of Santos et al. (2020) and Machado and Martins (2022): the regions with more recorded species (in the North and Southeast) are also those housing the main collections of Trichoptera and Neuroptera and, as expected, the states that are thought to be richest in the number of species, namely Amazonas (165 spp.), Pará (149 spp.) and São Paulo (146 spp.). The Northeast region has the lowest number of recorded species and only two states in the region have a truly significant number of species, Bahia (52 spp.) and Maranhão (87 spp.); furthermore, it does not seem coincidental that there is a resident researcher and a reference collection in Maranhão (CZMA). Furthermore, Sergipe is the only state in the country without official records of Tabanidae ( Fig. 13).

When Brazil is subdivided into terrestrial biomes, the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon are the most diverse in the number of tabanids, with 233 and 222 species recorded, respectively. The number of endemic species is high in both biomes, and the endemism in the Amazon reaches a high percentage of 59%. The third richest biome is the Cerrado with 147 species; however, the endemicity in this biome is low, with a percentage of 22%. The other three biomes of Caatinga, Pampa and Pantanal are less diverse, and together they do not reach even half the number of species recorded for the Atlantic Forest or the Amazon ( Fig. 14 ).

Figures

Figure 14. Number of Brazilian species of Tabanidae recorded for terrestrial biomes. The first number represents the total of species and second the number of endemic species.