Kirstin Williams, KZN Museum
A field trip to Umtamvuna Nature Reserve on the south coast in October 2021 yielded an interesting find. A horse fly specimen was collected that was last collected in 1971!
The species, Tabanus albilinea, was last collected from Port St John’s in 1971. The length of time between collecting this specimen and the previous ones is most likely due to a lack of collecting, rather than that the fly was absent during this time. It is a strikingly large black fly with a white stripe down the centre of its abdomen.
This trip was part of an ongoing study of horse flies between the Durban Natural Science Museum and the KwaZulu-Natal Museum. Horse flies have not been the focus of collecting by the KwaZulu-Natal Museum staff for a number of years. The only specimens that have been collected have been as by-catch in other studies.
Targeted collecting has produced some unusual and interesting finds including this Tabanus albilinea specimen. Hopefully further collecting will provide valuable information about the seasonal variations in several species of horse fly that are important vectors of disease.