Austrosimulium

1

Austrosimulium is a genus of about 30 species of black flies that are distributed in Australia and New Zealand. There are 2 subgenera: Austrosimulium whose species are principally from New Zealand, and Novaustrosimulium which are exclusively Australian. Austrosimulium is a sister genus to the monospecific Paraustrosimulium of South America. Some species are known to spread the protozoan blood parasite Leucocytozoon tawaki in penguins. In New Zealand, where they are known as sandflies or namu (in Māori from Proto-Austronesian *ñamuk "mosquito", compare with ), three species – A. australense, A. tillyardianum and A. ungulatum – bite humans.

Species

These 30 species belong to the genus Austrosimulium:

Literature cited

This article is derived from Wikipedia and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. View the original article.

Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Bliptext is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation.

View original