Galapagos Species Database

The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.

Tabanus vittiger Thomson, 1869

moscas y mosquitos, Galapagos green-eyed horsefly

Females feed on marine iguanas, sea turtles, land tortoises and humans (Philip 1976, 1983). Adults collected from coastal areas year-round, breeding in mangrove marshes (Philip 1976). Larvae were collected from brackish marshes and swamps.

Taxonomy

Domain
Eukaryota

Kingdom
Animalia

Phylum
Arthropoda

Class
Insecta

Order
Diptera

Suborder
Brachycera

Superfamily
Tabanoidea

Family
Tabanidae

Genus
Tabanus

Species
vittiger

Taxon category: Accepted

Origin: Endemic

Distribution

Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.

Distribution: Baltra, Bartolomé, Fernandina, Floreana, Isabela, Marchena, San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Santiago.

References

  • Sinclair, B.J. Peck, S.B. (2005) An annotated checklist of the Diptera of the Galápagos Archipelago (Ecuador). Charles Darwin Research Station, unpublished, 64 pp.
  • Johnson, C.W. (1924) Diptera of the Williams Galapagos Expedition. Zoologica 5(8): 85-92.
  • Curran, C.H. (1934) The Templeton Crocker Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences, 1932. No. 13 Diptera. Calif. Acad. Sc., Fourth Series 21(13): 147-172.
  • Curran, C.H. (1932) The Norwegian Zoological Expedition to the Galapagos Islands 1925, Conducted by Alf Wollebæk. 4. Diptera. (Excl. of Tipulidae and Culicidae). Medd. Zool. Mus., Oslo 30: 347-366.
  • Bequaert, J.C. (1933) The Templeton Crocker Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences, 1932. No. 11 The Hippoboscidae of the Galapagos Archipelago (Notes on the Hippoboscidae. 8.) with an Appendix on the Tabanidae. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., Fourth Series 21(11): 131-138.
  • Coquillett, D.W. (1901) Papers from the Hopkins Stanford Galapagos Expedition, 1898-1899. II. Entomological Results (2): Diptera. Proc. Washington Acad. Sc. 3: 371-379.
  • Philip, C.B. (1965) The identity and relationships of Tabanus (Neotabanus) vittiger, and notes on two cases of teratology in Tabanidae (Diptera). Annals Entomological Society of America 58: 876-880.
  • Philip, C.B. (1983) A unique, divergent developmental dependence of a Galapagos horse fly (Diptera, Tabanidae). The Wasmann Journal of Biology 41(1-2): 47-49.
  • Philip, C.B. (1976) Horse-flies, too, take some victims in cold-blood, as on Galapagos Isles. The Pan-Pacific Entomologist 52(1): 83-88.
  • Linsley, E.G. Usinger, R.L. (1966) Insects of the Galápagos Islands. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences Fourth Series 33(7): 113-196.
  • Parkin, P. Parkin D.T., Ewing, A.W. & Ford, H.A. (1972) A report on the arthropods collected by the Edinburgh University Galapagos Islands Expedition, 1968. The Pan-pacific Entomologist 48: 100-107.
  • Sinclair, B. J. (2023) An annotated checklist of the Diptera of the Galápagos Archipelago (Ecuador). Zootaxa, 5283, 1-102

You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.

This page should be cited as follows:

"Galapagos Species Database, Tabanus vittiger", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=6981. Accessed 1 May 2025.