Austrosimulium australense,known as theNew Zealand black flyor more commonlysandfly(namuinMāori), is a species of smallflyof the familySimuliidae,endemicto New Zealand. Females consume blood for nutrients to produce eggs, and it is one of three species ofAustrosimuliumin New Zealand that often bite humans.
| Austrosimulium australense | |
|---|---|
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| Illustration byDes Helmore | |
Scientific classification
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Family: | Simuliidae |
| Tribe: | Simuliini |
| Genus: | Austrosimulium |
| Subgenus: | Austrosimulium |
| Species: | A. australense
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| Binomial name | |
| Austrosimulium australense (Schiner,1868)
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| Synonyms | |
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Description
editThe bodies of adult females are 2.0–2.4 mm long; their wings are 1.9–2.5 mm long and 0.9–1.2 mm wide. The bodies of males are 1.8–2.8 mm long; their wings are 1.7–2.1 mm long and 0.8–1.1 mm wide.[1]
Larvae and pupae of the insect are found in small, cold-water streams, usually under heavy forest shade that serves to keep the water cool.[1]
- Larva and pupa
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Larva -
Pupa
Distribution
editThis is the most widely distributed species ofAustrosimuliumin New Zealand, being found fromNorth CapetoStewart Island,although it is largely absent fromCanterbury,Otago,and the South Islandhigh country.[1]
Feeding
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Most species ofAustrosimuliumin New Zealand do not attack humans;A. australenseis one of the three which does.[1][2]
"...no sooner had the sun risen, and we issued from our tent to wash by the river side, than those peculiarly vexatious pests, the sand-flies (namu), commenced their attacks on our bare hands and feet. The sand-fly is a small black insect, and swarms in such myriads, that one is never free from their vengeance, if remaining for a single instant in the same position: whilst sketching, my hands are frequently covered with blood, and their numbers being inexhaustible, one at last gets weary of killing them.…The horrid sand-flies attacked us to-day more unmercifully than ever, and in such clouds that I should imagine them to be a species very nearly allied to those that constituted the fourth plague of Egypt. "
—account ofA. australensenear theWaikato River,29 September 1844[3]
References
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- ^abcdCraig, D. A.; Craig, R. E. G.; Crosby, T. K. (2012).Simuliidae (Insecta: Diptera).Fauna of New Zealand. Vol. 68. Manaaki Whenua Press. pp. 149–153.
- ^Edens, John (11 January 2017)."Sandflies: New Zealand's blood-sucking summer nightmare (actually, it's year-round)".Stuff.co.nz.Fairfax Media.Retrieved15 August2017.
- ^Angas, G. F. (1847) Chapter I: "Journey into the interior of New Zealand — The Waikato". InSavage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand Vol. II.London, Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 21 & 23