Uherkovich Ákos: A Dráva mente állatvilága II. (Dunántúli Dolgozatok Természettudományi Sorozat 9., 1998)

Majer J. Krcmar S.: A Dráva- magyar- és horvátországi szakasza átéri területeinek bögölyfaunájáról (Diptera: Tabanidae). - On the horse-fly fauna (Diptera: Tabanidae) of the flood areas at Hungarian and Croatian sections of river Dráva

MAJER J. & S. KRĈMAR: A DRÄVA MAGYAR- ÉS HORVÁTORSZÁGI ÁRTEREINEK BOGOLVPAl/NAJAROL 429 On the horse-fly fauna (Diptera: Tabanidae) of the flood areas on Hungarian and Croatian sections of river Dráva József MAJER and Stjepan KRĈMAR Horse flies are the most annoying blood-sucking Diptera. In addition to their painful bite, they convey the risk infection, by being capable of transferring a wide range of pathogènes. The number of vectors spread by horse-flies can be as much as 80. Wet places with high air humidity, such as flood areas offer excellent conditions for the horse-flies to stay in and breed. The Dráva lowland is one of the less investigated areas as far as faunistic research is concerned. The only exception is the Bares Juniper Woodland the fauna of which is one of the most systematically studied ones in Hungary. Flies were collected during our surveys using sweep-nets and Malaise-trap, and by manual catching of flies that have flewn inside our automobiles. The bulk of the material was collected by Malaise traps. As a result of the systematic sampling during the 1980s, 28 horse-fly species were shown to exist in the Bares Juniper Woodland (MAJER 1983, 1985). The present account contains data on 24 species, collected from all over the National Park. There were 8 species that had not been caught here before. However, this figure was exceeded by the number of species (13) having been shown to exist in the Juniper Woodland previously but not found presently either there or in other parts of the National Park. During the process of taxonomic identification, one species was found which turned out to be new for the Hungarian fauna. It had been, though, caught earlier in Croatian Dráva-adjacent areas (KRĈMAR and MAJER 1994, KRĈMAR et al. 1996). This species is Hybomitra ucrainica (Olsufjev, 1952). Our study was extended to cover both sides of river Dráva, because of the fact that many species have their feeding area on one side of the river, while they breed on the other. This fact has crucial importance in recognising fauna corridors, exploring metapopulation structures and designing effective management plans. Between the line of river Dráva and that of the Croatian settlements Repaŝ, Ferdinandovac and Sesvete Podravske, there is a more or less uninterrupted range of extensive flood area forests, gallery forests and shrubs, and, similarly, important wet habitats exist along the river between Budakovac and Donji Miholjac, without the recognition of which it is impossible to understand the Dráva flood area as a whole.