September & October 1996 - Search for Types & Sorting Diptera in St. Petersburg, Vienna, Paris & London by Steve Gaimari In September and October of 1996, Steve visited several important insect collections in Europe to study type materials of Therevidae. These collections included the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, in Wien, Austria, the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France, and the Natural History Museum in London, England. Left: Steve in St. Petersburg

Steve started his trip in St. Petersburg, where he stayed at the hotel of the Russian Academy of Sciences for three weeks. The Zoological Institute was a 25 minute subway ride away, with a beautiful 20 minute walk down Nevski Prospekt (a major street in St. Petersburg), passing the Hermitage, the former Admirality building, the Fortress of Peter and Paul, and incredible statues and churches. At the Institute, Steve studied Chamaemyiidae with Dr. Vitali Tanasijtshuk, continuing collaborations with him after Vitali's visit to Illinois a year earlier. This represents the world's largest collection of this family, housing nearly 100 primary types, with the greatest diversity of species from the Palearctic through Asia, Mongolia, and Russian Far East. Vitali was kind enough to provide Steve with a synoptic collection (including paratypes) of chamaemyiids from that housed in the Zoological Institute. Steve is extremely thankful to Vitali for this valuable resource. In addition to his work with chamaemyiids, Steve studied in the collection of Therevidae and Scenopinidae at the Institute. Information was collected on various aspects of this collection, including the species housed, type materials and their condition, numbers of specimens of each species, and an assessment of genera in the unsorted materials. Vadim Zaitzev was also very kind in providing our project with a synoptic collection (including paratypes) of nearly all determined Therevidae in the Zoological Institute's collection (about 75 species), with very important material from Asia, Mongolia, and the Russian Far East. Steve is also very grateful to the dipterists at the Zoological Institute for all their help, including Olga Ovtchinnikova, Victor Krivokhatsky, Vera Richter, Kirill Gorodkov, Emilia Nartshuk, and everyone else.

From Russia, Steve flew into Wien, Austria, to spend several days in the collection at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. In Wien, Steve stayed at a small pension walking distance from the collection. Again, the walk through the city was beautiful, with unbelievable buildings and statues. (Can you tell this was his first time to Europe?). Also, he had never had real apple struedel until he visited a small pastry shop in Wien. Wow! At the collection, Ruth Contreras-Lichtenberg was very helpful in locating all of the necessary materials, and for showing him around the museum too. Steve studied the therevid collections closely, especially studying the type materials of Schiner, Wiedemann, and Kröber. Several new combinations and new synonymies became evident through his study of this very important collection. Several surprises awaited his discovery here, including the true identity of Thereva notata Wiedemann, and the location of the last remaining syntype of Thereva nigra Say!! In studying the therevids, Steve also catalogued the entire therevid collection, making notes as was done in St. Petersburg. Of course, Steve had to spend some time in the collection of Chamaemyiidae, making notes on Czerny type materials, studying and cataloguing the identified materials, and sorting the unsorted materials to genus.

From Wien, Steve took an overnight train to Paris. This overnight train is a great way to travel between these cities - it really was fun, and sleeping in a berth of a moving train is great. In Paris, Steve stayed in a cheap (as cheap as they get in Paris!) hotel walking distance from the collection of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. At this collection, Loïc Matile was a great help in locating materials important to my studies. And during our breaks from work, Steve got to practice listening and speaking French over coffee. He especially needed to study materials from the Macquart collection, and in so doing, found several new synonymies and new combinations. He also studied materials in the all-important Meigen collection, and the Pandellé, Hervé-Bazin, Dufour, and Gobert collections. All the therevids from each of these collections was catalogued with notes. The general collection also had many therevids, including types of Brauns, Kröber, Schiner, Segúy, Coquillett, and Becker. In addition to therevid studies, Steve spent some time working with the Chamaemyiidae, and in sorting through the unsorted Diptera. Type materials of Segúy, Pandellé, Meigen, and Loew were present here. Sorting through unsorted flies proved very worthwhile, as a large cache of specimens of several genera from Madagascar were uncovered for which Steve only had a handfull of specimens previously. Incidentally, Steve had never had a real chocolate eclair before this trip! The pastry shops were so wonderful, Steve skipped dinner one evening and just walked from one to the next to the next. The area around the collection is really quite friendly, and at night there are very interesting open air markets.

After Paris, Steve spent the rest of his time in London, staying with his sister-in-law Ruth and her husband John just four stops down the tube from Heathrow Airport. The tube ride to the Natural History Museum was about 25 minutes, and studying materials in this collection was very worthwhile. Most importantly, with the help of John Chainey, Steve studied Walker materials, and tried to locate the Bigot type of the type species of Ozodiceromyia. Unfortunately, Steve did not locate this important specimen, but through inquiries with Leif Lyneborg in Copenhagen, the type has been located and is in Steve's possession! The most important finding at the collection was the true identity of Thereva germana Walker, and several synonymies became evident. The type materials of White, Kröber, Macquart, Bigot, Ricardo, and Lyneborg were present in this collection, which probably had more type material than any other collection on this trip. The chamaemyiid collection was also very interesting to study, with the type materials of Cogan, Malloch, and others being present.

After five weeks working in these European collections, Steve returned to his family in Illinois to process the vast amount of information accumulated. Hopefully, his notes will help his officemates to decide which collections that they need to visit to study materials. This trip was generously supported by the Schlinger Foundation.

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