Gary J. Steck, Curator of Diptera (Tephritidae, other Tephritoidea)
Howard V. Weems, Jr., Emeritus Entomologist (Syrphidae)
Bruce D. Sutton, Entomologist (Tabanidae, Glossinidae, and Tephritidae)OVERVIEW
The Diptera collection of the Museum of Entomology (FSCA) currently having approximately 897,000 specimens forms one of the major North American fly collections. It consists of over 1,380 drawers of pinned specimens, at least 135,000 specimens (mostly Ceratopogonidae) mounted on microscope slides, and many thousands of as yet incompletely inventoried specimens in alcohol and bulk holdings. In addition, a small but growing collection of frozen specimens, mainly Tephritidae, is available for molecular and biochemical analysis. The collection of Diptera is worldwide in scope. Earlier accumulations, primarily from Florida and the eastern United States, still form a large portion of the collection; however, most groups have worldwide representation, with particular non-North American strengths for Neotropical taxa. In recent years much new material has been obtained, through surveys or exchanges, from the Neotropics, parts of Africa and Asia (especially Taiwan). Some groups are particularly well represented on a worldwide basis: e.g., Tabanidae, Asilidae (including the Martin collection), Syrphidae, and Tephritidae. The collection of Neotropical Tabanidae built by the late G. B. "Sandy" Fairchild is one of the premier representations of this family for that region. Other significant family holdings include Anthomyiidae, Ceratopogonidae (2nd largest in North America), Conopidae, Culicidae, Dolichopodidae, Muscidae (including the Dodge collection), Psychodidae, Sarcophagidae, Syrphidae, and Tachinidae. In addition to the Diptera holdings of the Museum proper, a significant collection of Chironomidae is maintained at the Entomology Collection, Florida A & M University (FAMU), Tallahassee, and curated by J. H. Epler & Janice G. Peters. Inquiries regarding the Chironomidae should be directed to the curators at FAMU. Some of the main sources for Diptera at the Museum have been from the collections of E. C. and W. M. Beck, F. S. Blanton, C. H. Curran, H. R. Dodge, G. B. Fairchild, J. T. Goodwin, F. C. Harmston, C. H. Martin, F. M. Snyder, K. H. Stephan, M. A. Tidwell, H. V. Weems, Jr., R. C. Wilkerson, W. W. Wirth, and D. G. Young.
In addition to the relevant holdings of the library, the Museum maintains an extensive reprint collection specific to the Diptera. The reprint library donated by H. V. Weems, Jr. remains the core to this collection, particularly with respect to the Syrphidae; however, the private reprint libraries of G. B. Fairchild (Tabanidae and Psychodidae), H. R. Dodge (Sarcophagidae), W. W. Wirth (Ceratopogonidae), F. M. Snyder (Muscidae), C. P. Alexander (Tipulidae), F. S. Blanton (Ceratopogonidae), R. H. Roberts (Tabanidae) and others have extended the taxonomic coverage and completeness considerably. The Culicidae reprint collection is also significant but needs to be organized. The Museum also maintains archives of the personal papers and notes of a number of dipterists including G. B. Fairchild, H. R. Dodge, W. W. Wirth, and R. H. Roberts among others. Reprints of papers published by W. W. Wirth, H. R. Dodge, F. M. Snyder, G. B. Fairchild are available for those willing to come and get them.
CURATION OF DIPTERA
All of the pinned Diptera in drawers and storage boxes in the Museum were roughly inventoried in 1998 for content and curation status using the scheme of McGinley (1989, Insect Collection News, 2(2):19-24). This does not yet include the slide mounted specimens, those in alcohol and the Chironomidae held at FAMU. Material that is curated to departmental standards (level 6) is listed in Table 1 by family, approximate number of specimens (+10%), number of genera, number of species, and geographic range of holdings. Brachycera, Tabanidae, and Nematocera are listed separately, as geographic ranges were tabulated somewhat differently for each group. Total fully curated holdings comprise approximately 320,000 specimens in 1,380 drawers. Most of the approximately 275 storage boxes have been tagged to indicate other curation levels (1-4).
TABLE 1. (All numbers are specimens per region except where noted.)
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An additional 273,000+ pinned and labeled specimens are currently in storage at curation levels 1 (unsorted) to 4 (identified to species, but not yet integrated into the main collection) (see Table 2). These specimens will be incorporated into the collection when the installation of new cabinets and drawers is completed bringing the total number of curated Diptera at the Museum to greater than 0.5 million, not including the holdings in alcohol or mounted on microscope slides.TABLE 2.
DIPTERA INVENTORY - CURATION LEVEL 2-4 AND UNSORTED
Family Florida North America Exotic (non NA) Total Anthomyiidae 263 5285 1052 6600 Asilidae 1013 3589 2728 7330 Bibionidae 0 1093 57 1150 Bombyliidae 4091 4384 1553 10028 Calliphoridae 1308 4967 1225 7500 Ceratopogonidae 330 1100 170 1600 Chironomidae 0 508 582 1090 Chloropidae 2147 733 611 3491 Culicidae 1420 9935 3345 14700 Dolichopodidae 6938 10729 4003 21670 Drosophilidae 745 190 115 1050 Ephydridae 882 403 310 1595 Lauxaniidae 505 544 326 1375 Muscidae 3457 10737 7908 22102 Otitidae 452 807 731 1990 Sarcophagidae 2648 2222 3464 8334 Sciaridae 700 670 280 1650 Sciomyzidae 575 789 6 1370 Sphaeroceridae 455 555 80 1090 Stratiomyidae 757 610 703 2070 Syrphidae 6001 18880 8839 33720 Tachinidae 5228 5921 3592 14741 Tephritidae 1616 2170 2086 5872 Tipulidae 75 888 387 1350 Other Families 6921 13597 4544 25062 SUBTOTAL SORTED 48527 101306 48697 198530 SUBTOTAL % BY REGION 24% 51% 25% 100% NUMBER OF SORTED SPECIMENS PER CURATION LEVEL Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 TOTAL 100803 23818 73910 198530 UNSORTED DIPTERA SUBTOTAL UNSORTED 13491 40735 19802 74028 SUBTOTAL % BY REGION 18% 55% 27% 100% TOTAL % BY REGION 23% 52% 25% 100% TOTAL SPECIMENS: 272558 In 1999 the entire pinned Diptera collection at curation level 6 was fully inventoried for species names and Florida records. As this information is updated to reflect current nomenclature, we will add it on a family by family basis. As of the fall of 2000, the Tabanidae is the most completely inventoried family of Diptera thanks to the considerable efforts of John Berger. Ultimately, a complete inventory of Museum holdings in Diptera as well as a complete checklist of Florida Diptera including distributions (by county) and monthly collection records will be made available.
Top of Page | Last updated 20 November, 2000