Ecology and distribution of the Simuliidae (Diptera) in South East Scotland

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the distribution of the Simuliidae of Scotland, and to investigate the ecological characters of Scottish species more extensively than had been attempted by former workers. Credit for having been the first to look into the problem of the distribution and ecology of black-flies in Britain is assigned to Edwards (1915, 1920), and Smart (1936) in a paper on the Simuliidae of Fortingal, Perthshire, furnished a foundation for the distribution of the species in that locality. It was realised, however, that as certain important details were omitted in those papers, further study was desirable. More recently in England the important question of the effect of the chemical composition of stream water on the immature stages of Simulium was considered by Pentelow (1935, 1937) in a survey of the non-tidal reaches of the river Tees.