Checklist and distribution maps of the blow flies of Venezuela (Diptera, Calliphoridae, Mesembrinellidae)

Abstract

A checklist of the 39 species of blow flies (Calliphoridae and Mesembrinellidae) so far known to occur in Venezuela is provided, based on a thorough literature review and the examination of ca. 500 specimens deposited in the main entomological collections of the country. Data from the literature and museum collections were used to generate distribution maps for 37 species. Three species are recorded from Venezuela for the first time: Chrysomya putoria (Wiedemann, 1830), Mesembrinella spicata Aldrich, 1925 and Mesembrinella umbrosa Aldrich, 1922.

Venezuela's Neutrality during the Great War: The Consolidation of the Gómez Dictatorship between 1914 and 1918

“…The congress did not materialize, and the White House never again acknowledged the existence of the Domínici proposal. 20 The outbreak of war severely dislocated Venezuela's economy. On August 18, 1914, Pedro Rafael Rincones, Venezuelan Consul in New York, reported that within the first three weeks, exports to Venezuela had diminished by nearly fifty percent since the commercial houses in Europe had cut their credits with the exterior, and the German firms with branches in New York were incommunicado with most of the world.…”

“…On reading the memorandum, President Wilson, swayed by Ambassador McGoodwin's negative reports, was unconvinced of the sincerity of Gómez's support and was persuaded that the "scoundrel" could be overthrown if a viable method could be devised. 29 Although Gómez's advisors favoring the Entente were gaining favor, Venezuelan exiles, who had sought refuge in the U.S. and were hatching plots to unseat the dictator, spread rumors that Gómez was planning to sell or lease Margarita Island to the Germans for use as a wireless or submarine base, an allegation supported by dispatches from Ambassador McGoodwin. To ascertain the truth of this assertion, in May 1917 the U.S. sent Major C. C. Smith, the military attaché at the legation in Caracas, on a tour of the country's coastal defenses.…”

Calliphoridae from Chile: Key to the genera and species (Diptera: Oestroidea)

“…Body and legs exceptionally hairy ( Fig. DISCUSSION The diversity of blow flies species reported for Chile is reduced (Mac-Lean & González, 2006), in comparison to other countries in the Andean and Neotropical Regions (Mariluis & Mulieri, 2003;Amat et al 2009;Kosmann et al 2013;Velásquez et al 2017). There are biogeographical, biological, and taxonomical aspects that could be related to the low diversity in Chile.…”

“…Actually, this family includes more than 1,500 species in approximately 150 genera (Pape et al 2011;Velásquez et al 2017). Commonly, is subdivided into 11 subfamilies (Zhang et al 2016); although recently Marinho et al (2017) raised to family rank the subfamily Mesembrinellinae, a small group of strictly Neotropical calyptrate flies, and as a monophyletic lineage inside Oestroidea.…”

“…Studies of the family on South America have been mainly focused on Argentina (Mariluis et al 1994), Brazil (Kosmann et al 2013;Pinto de Mello, 2003), Colombia (Amat, 2009;Wolff et al 2012;Wolff & Kosmann, 2016), Ecuador (Tantawi & Sinclair, 2013) and Venezuela (Velásquez et al 2017), Whitworth (2010) studied the species present in the West Indies, providing keys and reviewing some species. Withworth (2012) carried out a revision of the Neotropical species of Calliphora, and Withworth (2014) conducted the revision of the genus Lucilia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830.…”