Asiloid Flies

Field-work in South Africa and Namibia Sep 2019

Before we turn into 2020, I am taking this moment to summarize my field trip to South Africa and Namibia with #TeamDiptera member Allan Cabrero in September 2019.

This trip included a visit to the amazing Diptera collection at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum (NMSA) and conduct field-work in coastal areas of eastern South Africa and the Namib Desert in Namibia at the Ameib Private Nature Reserve (web-site) and the Gobabeb Namib Research Institute (gobabeb.org).

I would like to thank Jason Londt and John Midgley from the NMSA for allowing us to collect under their Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife permits in KwaZulu-Natal and Tricia Pillay for access to the collection at the NMSA. In Namibia, I would like to thank the Namibian National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST) and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) for issuing collecting and export permits. Furthermore, the staff at the Gobabeb Namib Research Institute was very helpful as always and in particular, Gillian Maggs-Kölling, Leena Kapulwa, and Eugene Marais assisted in many ways.

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Here are some of the habitats we visited:

1. Coastal forest at Umlalazi Nature Reserve (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) where Ommatius sp. (Asilidae) was collected.

2. Leeward side of vegetated coastal dunes at Umlalazi Nature Reserve where Euscelidia natalensis Dikow, 2003 (Asilidae) was collected.

3. Dry, open Acacia bushveld at Ameib Private Nature Reserve (Erongo, Namibia) where Anasillomos chrysopos Londt, 1983, Sisyrnodytes sp. (see photo below), Afroscleropogon sp., and Empodiodes namibiensis Londt, 2012 (see photo below) (all Asilidae) were collected.

4. Dry, open Acacia bushland at ≠Gaingu Conservancy with Grosse Spitzkoppe in the back (Erongo, Namibia) where Anasillomos chrysopos Londt, 1983 and Remotomyia brunales Londt, 1983 (see photo below) were collected. The ≠ symbol in the reserve name denotes a click sound in the Khoekhoegowab language.

5. Small dunes along dry Kuiseb riverbed in Namib-Naukluft National Park at Gobabeb Namib Research Institute (Erongo, Namibia) where Acnephalomyia sp. (Asilidae) and an undescribed genus of Mydidae were collected.

6. Hope Mine Wash in Namib-Naukluft National Park near Gobabeb were Anasillomos chrysopos Londt, 1983, Corymyia sp., and an unidentified genus of Willistonininae (all Asilidae) were collected. This is the 1st record of the genus Corymyia from Namibia – all four known species occur in western South Africa. The Willistonininae specimens are likewise extremely interesting as they do not fit into the currently known Afrotropical genera – more work needs to be done on these specimens!

7–8. Kahani Dunes in Namib-Naukluft National Park near Gobabeb were Stichopogon hermanni Bezzi, 1910, Sporadothrix sp., Torasilus sp., and an undescribed genus of Mydidae were collected. Photo 8 shows a dry leaf of Stipagrostis sabulicola (Poaceae), which was used as a perch by Sporadothrix sp. If you look closely, you can see two impressions from the rim of my collecting net on the sand – I caught one fly and walked on the dune for a few minutes before I circled back to this specific site. A 2nd fly was now sitting on the same perch and was collected.

9. An unnamed dune near Gobabeb with Allan catching flies. No asiloid flies were collected here, but a number of other Diptera including large flesh flies (Sarcophagidae, see photo below).

10. Dry, very wide Kuiseb riverbed near Swartbank in Namib-Naukluft National Park north of Gobabeb where an undescribed genus of Mydidae and a species of Therevidae were collected.

11. Dry, wide Kuiseb riverbed and small sand dunes at a field-site 20 km N of Gobabeb in the Namib-Naukluft National Park where an undescribed genus of Mydidae was collected (see photo below).

12. For the 4th time, I visited this site in the Namib Desert at the eastern-most edge of the Namib sand sea on the C14 north of Solitaire (Khomas, Namibia) in the Namib-Naukluft National Park and collected Stichopogon hermanni Bezzi, 1910, Anypodetus sp., and Afroholopgon sp. (all Asilidae). The Afroholopogon species is especially interesting and was collected for the 1st time here and likely is a new species.

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I was able to collect the following genera / species (I still need to identify some taxa to the species level):

Apioceridae: –
Asilidae: Acnephalomyia sp., Afroholopgon sp., Afroscleropogon sp., Anasillomos chrysopos Londt, 1983, Anypodetus sp., Corymyia sp., Empodiodes namibiensis Londt, 2012, Euscelidia natalensis Dikow, 2003, Ommatius sp., Remotomyia brunales Londt, 1983, Sisyrnodytes sp., Sporadothrix sp., Stichopogon hermanni Bezzi, 1910, and Torasilus sp.
Mydidae: undescribed genus.

I was also able to collect several species of bee flies (Bombyliidae), micro bee flies (Mythicomyiidae), hover flies (Syrphidae), shore flies (Ephydridae), quasimodo flies (Curtonotidae), house flies (Muscidae), flesh flies (Sarcophagidae), stiletto flies (Therevidae), and horse flies (Tabanidae).

Below are some of the photographs of flies in nature taken with an Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mark II and a f/2.8 60 mm macro-lens (= 120 mm focal length in 35 mm photography):

13. Crane-fly species Maekistocera filipes filipes (Fabricius, 1805) (Tipulidae) basking on a tree trunk in Umlalazi Nature Reserve (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). See iNaturalist observation: 63658122. (identification by Jon Gelhaus.)

14. Mating pair of Ephydridae (shore flies) at Tugela River mouth (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). See iNaturalist observation: 63672413.

15. Sisyrnodytes sp. (Asilidae) at Ameib Private Nature Reserve (Erongo, Namibia) feeding on a plant bug. See iNaturalist observation: 63672673.

16. Unfortunately, I didn't get a better photo of this small Stenopogoninae species (Asilidae). I only saw this female fly and collected another female. After studying the specimen in the lab for a considerable time, I was able to identify it as Empodiodes namibiensis Londt, 2012. I believe this record is the southernmost record of the primarily northern Namibian species (see Londt 2019 doi:10.3897/AfrInvertebr.60.33075 Fig. 16 (/article/33075/element/2/110/)).

17–18. Remotomyia brunales Londt, 1983 (Asilidae) at ≠Gaingu Conservancy and Grosse Spitzkoppe area. These flies were very fast and I wasn't able to get very close – photo 18 is a crop of 17 to show fly more clearly in the center of the photo. This is my 1st time collecting flies of this genus on which I published in one of my 1st articles with Jason Londt in 2000 (doi:10.5281/zenodo.11581).

19. Flesh-fly species Khowaba atrox Pape, 1991 (Sarcophagidae) resting upside down on Stipagrostis sabulica (Poaceae) on high dunes near Gobabeb. See iNaturalist observation: 63291181. (identification by Thomas Pape and Daniel Whitmore.)

20–21. Undescribed genus and species of Mydidae (Syllegomydinae) at field-site at Kuiseb riverbed 20 km N Gobabeb. Photo 20 shows an overview of where the fly is resting (in center of photo) and since I was able to get closer and closer without disturbing the fly, I was able to take a close-up as well. This photo also showcases that even if you get just a few centimeters above the ground, you can rest in much cooler environments. From crouching down to photograph this (and other insects) during exceptionally hot unseasonal weather, my knees got extremely hot on the sand ...

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Other impressions and encounters in South Africa and Namibia:

22–24. The KwaZulu-Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg (South Africa) is a great place to see wonderful exhibits including Diptera, meet up with old friends and colleagues, and study flies in the amazing collection, which is undoubtedly the most important collection of true flies in Africa. I first worked at the NMSA when I was an international student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal studying entomology and spent every free hour I had at the collection 20 years ago. This is where my taxonomic research on assassin flies really began under the tutoring of Jason Londt.

25. Jason Londt and I at Doreen Clark Nature Reserve just outside Pietermaritzburg (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, photo by Allan Cabrero).

26. Same as above with Allan Cabrero (photo by Jason Londt).

27. A free-living antlion larva (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) on coastal dunes at Umlalazi Nature Reserve (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). See iNaturalist observation: 63658711.

28–30. Beautiful subtropical, coastal forest and mangrove at Umlalazi Nature Reserve (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa).

31–32. Catching flies with giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis Linnaeus, 1758) and seeing ancient rock paintings at Ameib Private Nature Reserve (Erongo, Namibia).

33. A Common Namib Day Gecko (Rhoptropus afer Peters, 1869, Gekkonidae) hiding in shade under a rock in dry wash near Gobabeb (Erongo, Namibia). It was extremely hot at this field-site!

34. Solifuge Solpugiba lineata (C.L.Koch, 1842) (Arachnida: Solifugae: Solpugidae) at Kahani Dunes near Gobabeb (Erongo, Namibia). See iNaturalist observation: 63673759. (identification by Dewald du Plessis.)

35. One of the highlights of this trip was to see a Namaqua Chameleon (Chamaeleo namaquensis Smith, 1831) on the dunes at the eastern-most edge of the Namib sand sea on the C14 north of Solitaire (Khomas, Namibia).

36. Myself and beautiful Euphorbia sp. at Hope Mine Wash in central Namib Desert (photo by Allan Cabrero).

37–38. It's always great to be back at the Gobabeb Namib Research Intitute in the Namib Desert.

39. Before heading back home, it is advised to have German-style cheesecake (here with Rooibos tea and freshly squeezed juice mix) in Windhoek.

Posted by Torsten Dikow.

Update 1 2021-03-30: Observations on iNaturalist and some identifications were added.

Update 2 2021-07-18: Some identifications were added.

Update 3 2021-10-05: Some identifications were added.

Ollie Flint 1931 – 2019

This post is dedicated to my colleague and long-time NMNH curator of Aquatic Insects and Neuropterida Ollie Flint who passed away on 18 May 2019. He will be sorely missed by his family, his colleagues in the Department of Entomology, and the entomological community at large.

Ollie had an amazing career dedicated to the study of aquatic insects (Odonata, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera) and in particular Trichoptera as well as Neuropterida and Mecoptera and the curation of these important collections at the Smithsonian NMNH. He described more than 1,200 species of caddisflies and included countless more in his many research articles.

Below are the short obituary written by the Department of Entomology and shared by Sant Director Kirk Johnson with NMNH staff on 24 May 2019 as well as photographs and presentation slides of the celebration of Ollie's career at the NMNH held on 7 October 2019.

A comprehensive obituary has now been published by Steve Roble in Banisteria and can be downloaded here ( Download Roble_2019). Another obituary was written by Ollie's caddisfly colleagues Ralph Holzenthal and Joaquin Bueno in Braueria including a list of all publications, caddisfly species named by Ollie, and species named after Ollie and his wife Carol Flint (thanks to Dr Simon Vitecek for providing a scanned copy, Download Holzenthal_bueno_2020).

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Photographs of Ollie Flint by Flint family, Bill Murphy, Dave Ruiter, and Paul Frandsen.

Ollie collected insects world-wide including Antarctica as can be seen from the below map (also available here), which is based on collecting events in the NMNH EMu database as of September 2019 (we are working on locating the Antarctica specimens). These specimens can also be explored at Bionomia (bionomia.net/Q21283508) based on data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, gbif.org).

Ollie also identified specimens in the Smithsonian USNM and numerous other museums. An overview can be accessed at Bionomia. These data will change over time as more and more specimens are being databased and made available to GBIF (www.gbif.org).

One measure to appreciate the impact Ollie had is to list the species named after him and his wife Carol. As of January 2020, three genera and 99 species in 11 orders have been named after Ollie and Carol by 86 authors (source John Morse, Clemson University, and Steve Roble, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation).

List of patronyms compiled by John Morse and Steve Roble ( Download Oliver-Carol_Flint_Patronyms_4Jan2020_Morse+Roble).

 

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Short obituary shared with NMNH staff on 24 May 2019

Dear Friends,

It is with great sadness that I write to tell you that our dear colleague and friend Oliver "Ollie" S. Flint, Jr., Emeritus Curator of Neuropteroids in the Department of Entomology, passed away at age 87 this past Saturday, May 18th. Ollie was a passionate and energetic presence in our museum community for almost 60 years and was active in the collection until very recently. His constant smile and devotion to his work and our museum’s mission will be sorely missed.

Ollie grew up in Amherst, MA just down the street from renowned crane fly expert C.P. Alexander, who became his mentor in all things entomological. Ollie received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts before earning his Ph.D. in Entomology from Cornell University in 1960. He joined the NMNH Department of Entomology in 1961 as Curator of Neuropteroids, serving in this role for 35 years before becoming an Emeritus Curator in 1996. During his long career in the museum, Ollie curated a number of aquatic insect orders including Trichoptera (caddisflies), Megaloptera (fishflies), Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), and Odonata (dragonflies) as well as Neuroptera (lacewings), Mecoptera (scorpionflies), and Raphidioptera (snakeflies) – a collection of more than 12,000 species and almost 400,000 specimens. Ollie was a knowledgeable and dedicated curator for these groups, with our important dragonfly collection notably becoming the best curated group within all of Entomology.

Ollie authored more than 230 papers and books on aquatic insects. This remarkable scientific output spanned almost 70 years; his first paper was in 1951 and publications are in press. The majority of his research output focused on the systematics of Neotropical caddisflies, a group for which he was a world-recognized authority. Ollie described more than 1,200 species, 21 genera, and one family of caddisflies during his career. Ralph Holzenthal (University of Minnesota) relates that his own dissertation research and those of nine of his Ph.D. students depended almost entirely on specimens collected by Ollie. His and his wife Carol’s generosity in helping students and hosting visiting researchers was unlimited. Ollie loved fieldwork as probably only few people do, and his collecting and research resulted in the most comprehensive and best curated caddisfly collection in the world, particularly for Neotropical species. He also collected and deposited specimens of at least 13 other insect orders throughout the world, including Antarctica, adding more than 26,000 specimens of dragonflies and damselflies to the USNM collection as well as untold thousands of caddisflies. His local field work in collaboration with retired USDA scientist David Smith involved intensive malaise trapping that resulted in numerous new state records for several insect groups. More generally, Ollie was an avid hiker and an expert on the natural history and entomology of the greater Washington, DC area. Throughout his career, Ollie held key positions and received significant honors from organizations including the Entomological Society of America, the North American Benthological Society, and the Virginia Museum of Natural History Foundation (another local organization, like ours, particularly dear to his heart). Ollie was honored for his expertise in caddisflies at the 12th International Symposium on Trichoptera in 2006 in Mexico City, as can be seen on the “greater than life size mural” hanging on the 6th floor of the East Court opposite his office. Three genera and more than 60 species from six insect orders have been named in Ollie's honor to recognize his extensive contributions to the field.

Please join me in expressing our deepest sympathies to Ollie’s wife Carol, his daughters Cathy, Lisa, and Maria, and their mother Ruth.

Sant Director Kirk Johnson

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Celebration of the career of Ollie Flint at NMNH on 7 October 2019

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Program of event (Download Flinto_celebration_2019-10-07_program).

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Welcome by NMNH Deputy Director Ian Owens.

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Introduction by Department of Entomology Chair Seán Brady.

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Reflections by John Morse (Clemson University, retired).

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Presentation slides by John Morse (Download MorseJ_07Oct2019_small).

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Reflections by Ralph Holzenthal (University of Minnesota).

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Presentation slides by Ralph Holzenthal (Download 02_holzenthalr_small).

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Reflections by Desiree Robertson (National Park Service).

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Presentation slides by Desiree Robertson (Download 03_RobertsonD_small).

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Reflections by Joaquin Bueno (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, retired).

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Presentation slides by Joaquin Bueno (Download 04_buenoj).

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Reflections by Lourdes Chamorro (USDA Systematic Entomology Laboratory).

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Presentation slides by Lourdes Chamorro (Download 05_chamorro_small).

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Reflections by Paul Frandsen (Brigham Young University).

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Presentation slides by Paul Frandsen (Download 06_frandsenp_small).

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Reflections by Atilano Contreras-Ramos (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico).

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Presentation slides by Atilano Contreras-Ramos (Download 7_Contreras_small).

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Reflections by Larry Stevens (Museum of Northern Arizona).

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Reflections by Kyle DeMarr (UC Berkeley & Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).

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Reflections by Steven Roble (Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation).

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Presentation slides by Steven Roble ( Download 10_RobleS).

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Reflections by Chris Thompson (USDA Systematic Entomology Laboratory, retired).

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Reflections by Wayne Mathis (NMNH Department of Entomology, retired).

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Reflections by Richard Greene (Smithsonian Institution Libraries).

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Presentation slides by Torsten Dikow (NMNH Department of Entomology, Download Dikowt_presentation) highlighting the collection, number of holotypes described by Ollie at USNM, and specimens of Odonata collected by him.

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Closing by the Flint family – Carol Flint (2^nd from left) and Ollie's daughters Lisa, Cathy, and Maria (from left to right).

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Impressions of the social gathering to mingle and share stories about Ollie over light snacks and beverages.

Updates:
2020-03-03 - a newly published obituary by Steve Roble was added.
2021-03-30 - another obituary by Ralph Holzenthal and Joaquin Bueno was added.