FLYTREE: Art Borkent

Art Borkent is a world expert on the systematics of Ceratopogonidae (biting midges, no-see-ums), Corethrellidae (frog-biting midges), and Chaoboridae (phantom midges) and has broad interests in the phylogenetic relationships of other nematocerous Diptera at the family level. A major work published in 2012 described the pupae of each of the families of the Culicomorpha, providing homologies and a new phylogenetic interpretation of the relationships between the included families. His current work on Ceratopogonidae concentrates on the phylogenetic relationships between the genera and the incredible fossil amber record of this family. A large project on the pupae of Ceratopogonidae at the generic level as well as a number of generic revisions are currently under way. The 456-page world revision of the Corethrellidae published in 2008 was given the 2010 J.O. Westwood Award by the Royal Entomological Society for the best taxonomic work on a group of insects, worldwide (award presented biennially). He was assistant editor on the massive two volume "Manual of Central American Diptera and wrote chapters for three families and co-authored another four.

This past year has seen the start of the Zurquí All Diptera Biodiversity Inventory in Costa Rica, with co-Principle Investigator Brian Brown (Los Angeles County Museum) and with the support of National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio). The project seeks to inventory to the species level all species of Diptera in a 100 X 200 meter area of cloudforest, the first such inventory of any megadiverse group of insects anywhere in the tropics. There are over 50 collaborators willing to identify the material. More details are given in issue 49 of the Fly Times.

Another major activity is the systematics of the Ceratopogonidae of Costa Rica, which is being supported as part of the Biodiversity Resources Development Project developed in part, also by the National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio) in Costa Rica. Revisions of various Costa Rican taxa continue (especially of Parabezzia, various subgenera of Forcipomyia, and a few rare small genera).

Various chapters are being prepared for the upcoming Manual of Afrotropical Diptera, spearheaded by Ashley Kirk-Spriggs on Ceratopogonidae, Chaoboridae, Corethrellidae and the family key to larvae of Diptera (the latter with Bradley Sinclair).

A catalog of the Ceratopogonidae (pdf, 2.4 MB) of the world currently recognizes (as of February 20, 2013) 6128 extant and 272 extinct valid species (pdf, 77K). The complete catalog includes all species of Culicoides in a single alphabetical list. Another document provides our current, and rather messy, understanding of the subgeneric classification (pdf, 410K) of this large genus. The distribution of the species of Europe has been summarized with R. Szadziewski. Both Nearctic and Neotropical catalogs have been published in recent years (see publication list) Two subfamilies, 12 genera, and 275 species have been described as new taxa (pdf, 66K) in Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, Corethrellidae, Culicidae, Cecidomyiidae, and Dixidae.

Working independently since 1989, he is a research associate with the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, U.S.A. and Instituto de Biodiversidad in Costa Rica. A list of Art Borkent's publications is available in pdf (78 K).

Borkent, Art (1953 - )