Tabanidae, commonly known as horseflies, is a large, cosmopolitan family with approximately 4400 described species, of which about 400 occur in southern Africa. Both sexes feed on nectar or pollen and some species are important pollinators. Females usually require a bloodmeal to produce eggs, implicating them as vectors of disease‐causing agents. Despite their importance, they have been largely neglected by science, especially in the Afrotropics. In this study, we aimed to elucidate some fundamental spatiotemporal aspects of horsefly biology in South Africa by centralising digitised data from the major natural history museums in the region. Approximately 6 000 records have been digitised and collated into a Specify database from an approximate 17 000 specimens housed in 10 museums in the region. The collections from the 10 institutions, including six collections in neighbouring countries are briefly discussed. Spatiotemporal analysis according to biomes (Albany thicket, desert, forests, fynbos, grassland, Indian Ocean belt, Kalahari savannah sub‐biome, Central Bushveld sub‐biome, Lowveld savannah sub‐biome, Nama Karoo and Succulent karoo) revealed baseline information regarding their biology within the biomes. The majority of the records are from north eastern KwaZulu‐Natal, followed by Kruger National Park and areas surrounding Cape Town, indicative of uneven sampling. The database is represented by a total of 195 species of which 83 species were recorded in only one biome, with grassland home to 28% of the biome endemic species. A species list to the region, supplemented by records from previous authors, totals to 203 species occurring in the region. Future studies should aim to digitise the remaining specimens in order to create species pages with brief descriptions, high‐resolution photographs, distribution maps and spatiotemporal patterns available online.

中文翻译：

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南非的马蝇概述（双翅目：Tabanidae）：评估主要收藏品以进行时空分析

an科（Tabanidae）是一个大型的世界性大家庭，有约4400种上述物种，其中约400种发生在南部非洲。男女都以花蜜或花粉为食，某些物种是重要的传粉媒介。雌性通常需要做些血粉才能产卵，将其作为引起疾病的媒介。尽管它们很重要，但它们在很大程度上已被科学所忽略，特别是在非洲。在这项研究中，我们旨在通过集中来自该地区主要自然历史博物馆的数字化数据来阐明南非South蝇生物学的一些基本时空方面。从该地区10个博物馆中存放的大约17,000个标本中，将大约6,000条记录数字化并整理到“指定”数据库中。来自10个机构的收藏，简要讨论了包括邻国在内的六个馆藏。根据生物群落（阿尔巴尼灌丛，沙漠，森林，fynbos，草原，印度洋带，卡拉哈里热带稀树草原亚生物群，中央布什维尔德次生物群，洛夫维尔稀树大草原亚生物群，纳马卡鲁和肉质植物卡鲁）的时空分析揭示了它们的基线信息。生物群落内部的生物学。大部分记录来自夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省东北部，其次是克鲁格国家公园和开普敦周围地区，表明采样不均匀。该数据库由总共195种组成，其中只有一个生物群落记录了83种，其中草原是该生物群落特有物种的28％。该地区的物种清单，再加上以前的作者的记录，总计该地区共有203种。