Entomology

Research by staff of the museum has concentrated on the systematics and biology of African flies. Research productivity and excellence have always been priorities, and much of our published knowledge of Southern African flies has emanated from the KwaZulu-Natal Museum.

Brian Stuckenberg was the first entomologist appointed in 1953. Stuckenberg published on 23 families of Diptera and had over 100 species of flies named after him – a true sign of respect by fellow researchers.

There have been several other dipterists wo have worked in the KwaZulu-Natal Museum collection including, David Barraclough who worked on the systematics of over a dozen families and Jason Londt who worked on Asilidae and Mecoptera.  Jason has published over 150 papers, describing almost 600 species, and continues to work on the collection since his retirement in 2003.

Current research on the collection includes Dr Midgley’s  involvement in the PINDIP (Pollinator Information Network for Two-Winged Insects) (link to: https://www.pindip.org/) project, Dr Williams’ research on forensic dipterology and Dr Londt’s ongoing research on robberfly taxonomy.