Since 2001, I have been trapping biting flies with several Nzi traps on a continuous basis at my home in the small village of Russell (45° 15' N, 75 21' W, 74 m asl) near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I live on the edge of the village in a area with many farms. A few large blocks of forest are to the north near the Castor River; many woodlots are also scattered throughout the village. Corn and soybeans are the main crops in nearby farms with livestock also present throughout the area. A large dairy herd and several horses are about one km from my house to the west. The area is flat, with poorly-drained soils. An excellent satellite image is available at Google Maps; my home is in the south-central area on the western edge of the village. Hourly weather data are available at Environment Canada for the Ottawa airport, which is 22 km WNW of Russell.

TOTAL CATCHES

Links in the table provide considerable further information
Catches by year for each species, distribution maps,
notes on biology, and detailed scientific bibliographies

Totals are inclusive of all traps / odour baits
2001: one unbaited trap, facing west
2002: one octenol + one unbaited trap, facing mostly EAST
2003: 4-6 traps facing west, mostly octenol-baited
2004*: typically 6-8 octenol-baited traps, facing west
2005: mostly 11 octenol-baited traps, facing west
2006: 7 octenol-baited traps, facing west
2007: 9 octenol-baited traps, facing west

*Sticky traps were used late in the year resulting in high stable fly catches
^† An additional 1,257 mosquitoes were caught over two nights and one day
in July at a single Nzi trap baited with carbon-dioxide + octenol

Scientific Literature

A bibliography of over 1,000 scientific papers on the biology of tabanids is provided in the link below. This compendium was prepared from numerous sources and is therefore relatively complete in terms of modern publications covering North America and Africa. It also includes key references for other parts of the world.

There is no convenient review of the ecology of Canadian tabanids. However, a definitive taxonomic reference was published in 1990, with many useful notes on biology. It is out of print, but copies can sometimes still be found in bookstores:

Teskey, H.J. (1990) The insects and arachnids of Canada. Part 16, The horse flies and deer flies of Canada and Alaska, Diptera: Tabanidae. Ottawa: Agriculture Canada, Biosystematics Research Centre, Publication 1838.

For an overall introduction to the biology of Tabanidae, there is a recent, well-illustrated review article from the USA:

McKeever, S. & French, F.E. (1997) Fascinating, beautiful blood feeders deer flies and horse flies, the Tabanidae. American Entomologist 43, 217-226.

An important monograph on African tabanids was published by the Natural History Museum in the UK in three volumes between 1952 and 1957. It is still relevant, and is the definitive source of most taxonomic information for Africa:

Oldroyd, H. (1952, 1954, 1957) The horseflies of the Ethiopian region. Volumes I, II, III. London: British Museum (Natural History).