Patrick Schaefer, an NBP PhD student working at the University of Toronto, recently published an article entitled, “An update on the biting fly component of the Northern Biodiversity Program” in the winter 2011 Biological Survey of Canada Newsletter.
Here’s a brief excerpt:
Preliminary results from the 2010 season suggest that the northern biting fly fauna is far from homogeneous – even on a relatively limited geographical scale. … Furthermore, there is tantalizing evidence that at least some biting flies may be shifting their distributions northwards in response to a changing climate. If this is true, it could have important implications for the hosts of these bloodsucking species.
You can read the rest of this really excellent overview of the more Dipterish components of the NBP program (and enjoy some wonderful photographs of the field work) by clicking here to be redirected to a pdf of the newsletter.
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Reference:
Schaefer, P. 2011. An update on the biting fly component (Diptera: Simuliidae, Culicidae, and Tabanidae) of the Northern Biodiversity Program. Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada, 31(2): 41-49.
Northern Biodiversity Program 