[Syrphidae] Annual up-date on syrphid activities, etc.

[christian thompson]

Colleagues, friends, et alia

Today I have sent out the reprints of my most recently published papers.
This includes all received since my last mailing earlier last year (18 Jan
2001). If you did not receive reprints from me last year and want some,
please let me know. Also, go to my publication list
(www.sel.barc.usda.gov/selhome/staff/fctpubs.htm)
to see what other papers are still available; also note that some of the
more recent paper are now available as down-loadable Adobe Acrobat pdf
files. [And Yes, Jeroen and Martin, your names have been added and your
special requests dealt with!]

Below is brief summary of last year's progress. As usual, I remain
greatly behind in getting done what I want. After now 2 years without any
technical support it is getting worst (that is, this should have been done
in January, but it's May). So, please bug me frequently if your particular
requests seem to have been forgotten. Nothing is forgotten, but functionally
as the pile grows bigger and faster, some things do get buried!

The work on Costa Rican flower flies remains as stated last year. We
finished treatments of the MesoAmerican Mallota and Meromacrus, revisions of
Habromyia, Lycopale and related genera (3 papers in press with Studia
Dipterologica). We will be turning out  4 or more papers this years
(Cerioidines, Aristosyrphus, Dideomima, Xylota, and maybe Palpada). Our
current count is 479 species of which 271 species need names! Most of them
are in the big genera Copestylum and Ocyptamus and so far we have been doing
the small genera.

More unusual life-histories have been discovered by local students. We now
have in press the description of the first known leaf-mining Allograpta
(Kenji Nishida, the discover). We are now working on an Ocyptamus that uses
honey-dew from whiteflies to attract and then feeds on flies (Onanchi Urena,
the discover). And finally we received rumors of another Allograpta that
feeds on pollen. (Remember, the We for Costa Rica now includes these
students, as well as Graham Rotheray, Geoff Hancock, Manuel Zumbado, Heikki
Hippa, et alia.)

On other fronts, the Australian work is slow but coming. Manuscripts on the
new genera of Australia and New Zealand were completed. Description of a new
white-fly predator from Australia was done also. Luciane Marinoni from
Curitiba is spending her sabbatical year here in Washington. So far we have
completed the first in a series of papers on the flower flies of
southeastern Brazil. And then Lloyd Knutson, Wayne Mathis and I finished
what will probably be George Steyskal's last word on the nomenclature of
Illione
(Sciomyzidae)! Now I only need time to finish that manuscript I got from
Macquart (fortunately he now longer seems to care)!

The BioSystematic Database of World Diptera continues to improve. Version
3.0 was put online recently.  Please go to our Diptera WWW site and check it
out. Look under names at www.diptera.org. We plan another MYIA volume this
year to cover a number of smaller family and expect to have volume 2 of the
Diptera
Data Dissemination Disk done in time for ICD5! Unfortunately, little work
was done on the syrphid names.

Cheers


F. Christian Thompson
Systematic Entomology Lab., ARS, USDA
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D. C. 20560-0169
(202) 382-1800 voice
(202) 786-9422 FAX
cthompso@sel.barc.usda.gov [NB: no terminal "n"]
visit our Diptera site at www.diptera.org