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Biting midges of the genus  Culicoides  Latreille, 1809 (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are competent vectors of various pathogens in Europe with veterinary importance such as: Bluetongue virus, Schmallenberg virus, Epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus and avian haemosporidians. In order to reveal the potential role that they may play in spreading diseases in wildlife and thus the impact on ecosystems which they render, a reliable estimation of their faunistic diversity is required. Previous surveys conducted in the region of Kalimok Biological Station – a wetland on Lower Danube flow – were focused mainly on the ornithophilic species acting as vectors of avian haemosporidians, and thus leaving out the whole  Culicoides  diversity in the area underestimated ( Bobeva et al. 2013 ,  Bobeva et al. 2014 ,  Bobeva et al. 2015 ). In the present study, we combined morphological and molecular approaches for species identification of the biting midges collected in the region of the field station in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2018 years. Out of the 37  Culicoides  species reported previously as national fauna ( Nedelchev 2013 ,  Pudar et al. 2018  ) , we recorded 13 species in the studied area. In addition, three species namely,  Culicoides duddingstoni ,   C .  griseidorsum  and  C .  кibunensis  were newly recorded for the Bulgarian fauna, which raises the number of species of national fauna to 40. Interesting specimens affiliated to  C. pseudopallidus  have been collected in Kalimok. This latter species has not been reported in Central and Eastern Europe so far and therefore further attention is required prior being considered as a new record. Regarding the potential vectors of avian haemosporidians in the studied area, the present investigation raised the list of species suspected for spreading this disease in wildlife from three to six, namely:  C. alazanicus, C. circumscriptus, C. duddingstoni, C .  griseidorsum ,  C .  kibunensis  and  C. pictipennis.  The current study of the biting midges’ biodiversity improved the knowledge about the Bulgarian  Culicoides  fauna including the list of the potential vector species of avian malaria. However, faunistic studies on  Culicoides  in Europe remain sparse and such data serves as a basic knowledge for a better understanding of the  Culicoides- borne diseases.

Preliminary results on species composition of the biting midges-fauna ( Culicoides) in a wetland on Lower Danube Flow, Bulgaria