120 Years in 120 Objects
Join the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in celebrating the museumโs 120th year of orbiting the sun. Staff and guest curators have chosen one object or item per year of our existence to highlight to the public. Visit the website and our social media platforms regularly to see the latest object and keep an eye out for information about a physical exhibition later this year!
Todayโs Object is from 1963
The holotype of Pelloloma nigrofacies: a story of history and rarity by John Midgley, Head of Natural Sciences
In 1963, Brian and Pam Stuckenberg were traipsing along the eastern slopes of the Drakensberg at Naudeโs Nek, when they came across some strange flies. Brian and Pam collected almost 35,000 fly specimens during their time attached to the museum, which culminated with Brian serving as director from 1976 to 1994. It would take a further ten years for the Naudeโs Nek specimens to be described and formally named, as Pelloloma nigrifacies (roughly translated as the dark margined hover fly). Then, for another 60 years, no specimens of Pelloloma nigrifacies would be found anywhere but Naudeโs Nek, suggesting that this might be a highly localized species and at risk from climate change. This changed recently when specimens were found in Lesotho as well.
Collecting for the future has always been a core principle in museum collections. We hold a resource for the future and this has never been more important than now. In the face of climate change, the records we keep from various localities allow us to monitor change and inform conservation efforts to keep our ecosystems intact. Records are even more important for rural areas, where wild pollinators, like Pelloloma nigrifacies, are important in food gardens and small-scale agriculture. Distribution maps donโt only show where species are, but also where people have collected, another argument for the records kept in museums. This species appears to occur broadly in the high-elevation region of South Africa and perhaps the species will be able to migrate, another pollinator surviving climate change. In its own way, Pelloloma nigrifacies tells us about many things, the dedication of past staff, the responsibility of the present staff, and the knowledge held by the museum.
The holotype of Pelloloma nigrifacies
A view of Naudeโs Nek, near to where the first specimen was collected.
