Chloropidae (Diptera) da Fazenda Morelândia, Santa Bárbara, Pará, Brasil

Abstract

The Chloropidae, commonly known as the little-eye gnat, are very common and found in decaying plant material. Some are frequent in flowers, while others bother humans and animals by their behavior of landing in the eyes or ears and also by feeding on body secretions in open wounds or injuries. The family is cosmopolitan with about 2,000 described species, classified into three subfamilies: Siphonellopsinae, Chloropinae, and Oscinellinae. The genera Liohippelates (Duda) and Hippelates (Loew) of the subfamily Oscinellinae are of major sanitary and veterinary importance in the Neotropics, especially in Brazil. The objective of this work is to classify the species of Chloropidae from Fazenda Morelândia, Santa Bárbara, Pará, Brazil, to deepen the taxonomy of the family and to define priorities for further research on medical and veterinary importance to be developed. The collections were carried out using a horse as bait, as a result of the methodology used in the previous subproject, which aimed to capture several groups of insects associated with hematophagous attacks. Collection data were processed by time of day (7 am - 6 pm). Measurements of climatic factors at the site were taken, by hours of the day, such as temperature, relative humidity, light, and rainfall. The results for the periods studied (January, April, May, October, December 2005 and June 2006), show a total of 1,523 specimens, all belonging to the subfarnelline Oscinellinae. The 5 species identified were Liohippelates peruanus (Becker), 1912 with 371 specimens (24.35% of the total), Liohippelates flavipes (Loew), 1866 with 684 (44.91 %), and other 3 separated in morphospecies, being m.sp. 1 with 308(20.22%), m.sp.2 with 147(9.65) and m.sp.3 with 13(0.85%). These data enrich the collection of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi and consolidate future research.