Analysis of Morphometric Characteristics of Different Populations of Tabanus bromius Linne 1758 (Diptera: Tabanidae)

Abstract

Horse flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) are known world-wide as important mechanical vectors of viruses, bacteria, protozoans, and helminths that cause diseases in wild and domestic animals. Tabanus bromius L. is common species worldwide, which shows considerable variation in the size of the body due to its adaptation to different habitats. In this paper, thirteen populations of this species, which are collected from different habitats and ecological regions (forests, sea sides and alpines) at altitudes between 5-2200 meters in Anatolia and Aegean were compared using geometric morphometries. When the wing shape differences of populations were analyzed by UPGM, the cluster analyses recognized two main groups of populations, one group comprising Afyon (890 m), Amasya (800 m), Artvin (960 m), Bolu (1200 m), Eskisehir (1170 m), Kastamonu (600 m) and Zonguldak (1050 m) while the second group comprised Bursa (700 m), Giresun (150 m), Sinop (160 m), Samsun (340 m), Karabiik (230 m) and Trabzon (200 m).