John F. Burger

Collection and Preservation of Forensically Important Entomological Materials

The insects and other invertebrates colonizing corpses as decomposition progresses can provide valuable information concerning the time and manner of death. Accurate determinations are possible, however, only when representative specimens are properly collected and preserved. The protocol developed by the authors describes equipment and techniques for sampling, preserving, packaging, shipping, and rearing forensically important insects. This information should aid medicolegal professionals in data collection, allowing accurate determinations by entomological means.

Comprehensive inventory of true flies (Diptera) at a tropical site

Estimations of tropical insect diversity generally suffer from lack of known groups or faunas against which extrapolations can be made, and have seriously underestimated the diversity of some taxa. Here we report the intensive inventory of a four-hectare tropical cloud forest in Costa Rica for one year, which yielded 4332 species of Diptera, providing the first verifiable basis for diversity of a major group of insects at a single site in the tropics. In total 73 families were present, all of which were studied to the species level, providing potentially complete coverage of all families of the order likely to be present at the site. Even so, extrapolations based on our data indicate that with further sampling, the actual total for the site could be closer to 8000 species. Efforts to completely sample a site, although resource-intensive and time-consuming, are needed to better ground estimations of world biodiversity based on limited sampling.Brian Brown et al. report the results of the Zurquí All Diptera Biodiversity Inventory project, one of the largest efforts to date to directly assess species richness of a megadiverse order of insects. The authors identified 41,001 flies to 4332 species, including 73 of the worlds 160 Diptera families.

Tabanus monilus, a New Synonym of T. dorsifer (Diptera: Tabanidae)

Philip (1968) described Tabanus monilus Philip from one ♂ specimen, probably collected from a light trap in Madera Canyon, Santa Rita Mountains, Santa Cruz County, AZ. The species was based in part on the unique shape of the 2nd palpal segment and the beadlike segments of the fore-tarsi, from which Philip derived specific name. No additional males or females of T. monilus having the palpi or fore-tarsi similar to the holotype have been collected.