Philoliche (Philoliche) rondani (Bertoloni, 1861)

Miller, Benjamin, Villet, Martin & Midgley, John Mark, 2022, A confirmed feeding attempt by the haematophagous horse fly Philoliche (Philoliche) rondani (Bertoloni, 1861) (Diptera: Tabanidae) on fresh carrion, Biodiversity Data Journal 10, pp. 77507-77507 : 77507

Philoliche (Philoliche) rondani (Bertoloni, 1861)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; behavior: feeding; occurrenceStatus: present; preparations: photograph; Taxon: scientificName: Philoliche rondani; acceptedNameUsage: Philoliche rondani; parentNameUsage: Tabanidae ; kingdom: Animalia ; phylum: Arthropoda ; class: Insecta ; order: Diptera ; family: Tabanidae ; genus: Philoliche ; specificEpithet: rondani; taxonRank: species; scientificNameAuthorship: (Bertoloni, 1861); nomenclaturalCode: ICZN; taxonomicStatus: accepted; Location : higherGeographyID: 7017573; higherGeography: Africa : South Africa: Limpopo: Mookgophong : ASDIA Wild Game Farm ; continent: Africa ; country: South Africa; countryCode: ZA; stateProvince: Limpopo; locality: ASDIA Wild Game Farm ; verbatimLocality: ASDIA Wild Game Farm , Mookgophong region ; locationAccordingTo: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names ; verbatimCoordinates: 24°26'S 28°25'E; verbatimLatitude: 24°26'S; verbatimLongitude: 28°25'E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: degrees minutes; decimalLatitude: -24.43333; decimalLongitude: 28.41666; Identification: identifiedBy: John Chainey; Event: eventDate: 2014-12; startDayOfYear: 334; endDayOfYear: 365; year: 2014; month: 12; verbatimEventDate: December 2014; habitat: savanna; eventRemarks: about 18 hours post mortem; Record Level: type: StillImage; modified: 2014-12; rights: Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; rightsHolder: R Boon; basisOfRecord: HumanObservation

Ecology

At the ASDIA Wild Game Farm (24°26'S, 28°25'E) in the Mookgophong area of Limpopo, South Africa, a female of Philoliche (Philoliche) rondani (Bertoloni, 1861) was photographed visiting the carcass of a blue wildebeest ( Connochaetes taurinus (Burchell, 1823)) cow that had died during calving (Fig. 1 ). An additional specimen was observed, but not photographed. No specimens were collected. The incident occurred during December 2014 (austral summer). The flies' activity was located primarily on the lower part of the soft abdominal region of the carcass, closer to the ground. The flies were observed on the morning following the death, about 18 h post mortem. Accurate meteorological data is not available, but typical weather for December is warm, average minumum temperature is 17.4°C and average maximum 22.8°C. The flies were active when the observers arrived at the carcass and continued to visit the carcass for approximately five minutes. There was no obvious evidence of the animal being fed on by mammalian scavengers during the night, except that the calf had been dragged away from the remains of the mother. Adult blow flies already had a strong presence on other parts of the carcass.

Notes

A random selection of P. (P.) rondani specimens was taken from the KwaZulu-Natal Museum entomology collection (n = 15) and the average ratio of proboscis length (oral margin to tip of proboscis) to head height (vertex to oral margin) was measured using vernier calipers.

Measurements of preserved specimens found the ratio of proboscis to head height to be 1.59:1 (n = 15). The minimum observed ratio was 1.15:1. In Fig. 1 , the ratio of visible length of the proboscis to head height is 1.10:1, indicating that the labellae have penetrated into the tissue to obtain a blood meal. This represents the first record of intrusive feeding on a post mortem host by Tabanidae .

Figures

Figure 1. A female of Philoliche (Philoliche) rondani (Bertoloni, 1861) feeding on the carcass of a blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus (Burchell, 1823 )) that died the previous day, approximately 18 hours earlier (Photograph by R. Boon, with permission).