Preservation of Material for Molecular Studies. Brian Wiegmann's lab has been conducting experiments to find best methods for preservation of material for subsequent molecular analysis. What works best is followed by less successful methods in descending order:

1) live fly into liquid nitrogen or in -80° freezer, if used soon; add cold 95-100% ethanol if not to be used right away

2) live fly into 95-100% cold ethanol (do not bake in car, put in cooler on ice if possible)

3) live fly into 70% ethanol

4) recently dead fly into 70% ethanol

5) museum specimens in 70% ethanol -- only a small percentage of these work

6) dried specimen -- works only for some abundant genes (mitochondrial and ribosomal genes) when specimens have been handled well (humidity is not high)

They have also experimented with cyanide-killed specimens. If the specimens are left in the cyanide tube, they got great gene amplification because the cyanide acted as a desiccant. They have yet to test killing with cyanide and quickly moving the specimen to 95-100% ethanol.

Taxonomic Monographs. Mike Irwin's group hopes to develop a monograph of the Nearctic Therevidae within the first 5 year period, with graduate student Steve Gaimari working on Ozodiceromyia (Cyclotelus-group), Kevin Holston working on Thereva (Thereva-group), and Mark Metz on Brachylinga (Brachylinga-group). The first and third groups have north-south distributions, while the second group is distributed east-west. Don Webb and Mike Irwin will be working on smaller genera and they have completed revisions of 7 genera since 1990.

Mike Irwin and David Yeates will visit Leif Lyneborg (collaborator in Copenhagen) for about a week in September 1996 after the International Congress of Entomology. They will be working on the speciose Australian genus Anabarrhynchus.

Ozodiceromyia This genus has 30 currently described species. Steve Gaimari has identified 18 easily sortable groups, finding about 60 species so far in the 9 groups he has sorted to species without dissection of the external genitalia. He estimates he will find 100-150 species, and it will take him about 2 months to get a working idea of all the species. He will be going to Europe and Russia in September and October to study types. He will be trying to test the phylogenetic relationships among species groups and his first paper will be a key to and description of species groups and a revision of the nominal O. mexicana-group. His molecular work in conjunction with Brian Wiegmann's lab will be to relate Ozodiceromyia to the rest of the Cyclotelus-group and relate this to morphology. The question was raised if he would also include SEM work on morphological structures, to which the general answer was that he would use all the tools helpful in illustrating his papers, including SEM.

Brachylinga There are 16 species of Brachylinga currently described. Mark Metz has sorted out 36 species groups and thinks he will have a maximum of just over 100 species. This genus is considered to be all New World, getting as far south as Chile. Mark is reviewing the specimens before looking at the literature. In addition to publications about his chosen genus, Mark would like to publish on the problem of female specimens that are not associated with males through a morphometric analysis of the lock & key mechanism to associate males and females. Secondly, he and Mike Irwin will describe a specimen found in amber from the Dominican Republic.

Thereva There are 184 recognized species of Thereva in the literature and synonymies and homonymies abound. Kevin Holston went to the literature first and found that even in the literature there are several species complexes described. He will be looking at the relationship between regions. Lyneborg will be of considerable help to Kevin's work when analyzing the Palearctic species.

World Wide Web and Dissemination. Gail Kampmeier showed the therevid home page and explained that many areas are not much more than a skeleton that needs some informational meat. She will be working with Brian to link the pages to the Tree of Life (Brian is in charge of the Diptera with David Yeates).

Chris Thompson showed the Diptera pages (http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera/diptera.htm) associated with his group at the Smithsonian. Their site too is remains under construction, but their graphics are quite beautiful.

Chris also demonstrated his Fruit Fly Expert System and Biosystematics Information Database on CD-ROM.

In-depth Discussions

Needs for Molecular Studies. Brian Wiegmann would like to see at least two species preserved from each genus to get a good estimate of the ancestral node. See earlier discussion for the best means of preserving specimens for molecular studies. The greatest needs for fresh material lie in the Apsilocephala-group and the Phycinae.

Expedition Planning.

The following areas were identified for potential expeditions (supported by external funding):

Southern Africa Indian Ocean coast near Mozambique; Western Cape particularly Namaqualand; Namibia; Botswana. ideal timing: 6 weeks between September and November
Chile-Argentina ideal timing: 6-8 weeks between October and December
Tasmania ideal timing: 2 weeks between November and February
Central Asia/China Longlong Yang will help make contacts and plans for this expedition. ideal timing: 4 weeks between late June and August
Madagascar quick initial trip (ideal timing: June) to develop logistics plus longer trip (ideal timing: June)
Central America ideal timing: July-August
South Florida & Caribbean Keys; Dominican Republic; Cuba? ideal timing: February
Atlas Mountains & Saharan Desert (NW Africa) ideal timing: April-May
New Caledonia ideal timing: September-October
Baja California/Mexico ideal timing: March/April-June
Indian subcontinent Nepal; Pakistan; SW coast of India. ideal timing: unknown
New Guinea ideal timing: unknown

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