<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:8pt"><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Its 5 a.m. on a cold Christmas day in Dharwar (our ‘cold
season’ now, no ‘winter’ here in the tropics) and it seems most appropriate and
practical to use this site to wish my hover-flyer ‘family’ and friends a Merry
X’mas and a wonderful coming New Year 2014 !
May us all document further interesting and novel data on these
beautiful flies together, like the many wonderful papers published this year. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> We in India also
celebrate Christmas (a government holiday here, like many Hindu and Muslim
festivals) in this ancient civilization with a multi-religious, multi-lingual,
multi-ethnic population of immigrants (by sea and then overland) from Eurasia, actually mostly from the
Euphrates-Tigris river valleys in current Iraq (Persia, Mesopotamia) as DNA
research has revealed. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> I was browsing
information about Alfred Russel Wallace (his centenary death anniversary fell
on 7<sup>th</sup> November 2013) for a forthcoming paper on Oriental <i>Spheginobaccha </i>de Meijere, and found the
following in his writings to share with you all :<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>" A very tall
Pig with a very long nose <o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>Sends forth a
proboscis right down to his toes,<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i> And then by the name of an Elephant goes, <o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>Which Nobody can
Deny !<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i> </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>" An Ape with
a pliable thumb and big brain, <o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>When the gift of
the gab he had managed to gain,<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i> As Lord of Creation established his reign,<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i> Which Nobody can Deny !<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i> </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And my collection of “Nonsense Rhymes” (with drawings) by
Edward Lear had nothing on flies but the following may be appropriate to help
novices distinguish a hover-fly from its bee model :<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>“There was an Old
man in a tree,<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>Who was horribly
bored by a Bee;<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>When they said,
‘Does it buzz?’<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>He replied, ‘Yes,
it does!’<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>‘It’s a regular
brute of a Bee!’<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i> </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Being also an ‘Old’ Man now (what the hell is ‘old’
anyway?), I would recognize a <i>hover-fly</i>
by the way it flies, graceful and unique, in character, unlike any bloody heavy
bee!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> And I agree with
Wallace, my teen-age years collector-explorer hero (like Gerald Durrell was,
after Jim Corbett, with his great books I bought with my pocket-money and read
in delight), when he wrote :<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">"Those who succeed in the race for
wealth are by no means the best or the most intelligent ..." A.R.
Wallace (1890) “<i>Human Selection</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> <o:p></o:p></div><div>
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: middle; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Cheers and have a happy holiday after working hard all year;
take ‘a break’ as they say nowadays,<o:p></o:p></div><div></div><div> </div><div>Dr Kumar Ghorpade, Scientist Emeritus, Post-Graduate Teacher & Research Associate in Systematic Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Krishi Nagar, Dharwar 580 005, Karnataka, INDIA.
<br>Postal Mailbox: P.O. Box 221, K.C. Park Post Office, Dharwar 580 008, INDIA. Registered mail to: "Bell Bungalow," Kumareswar Colony 1st Cross, off Haliyal Road, Saptapur, Dharwar 580 001 (INDIA).</div><div><br></div></div></body></html>