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Collecting
Trips and Expeditions
Stiletto
flies are poorly represented in the collective museums of
the world. This is so because adults, although rather abundant
in certain habitats, are by nature secretive and seldom taken,
even by the most avid collectors not specifically looking
for this group of flies. Because of their poor representation
in museums, the old age and often poor condition of pinned
specimens that are in the museums, and the need for sampling
previously unsurveyed or inappropriately surveyed areas, the
Therevid PEET team has embarked on a series of expeditions
in carefully selected parts of the world. One overriding reason
for expeditions is to obtain fresh specimens of targeted taxa
to make available material for ongoing molecular systematics
studies to help elucidate evolutionary relationships among
taxa.
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other expeditions, additional, well-preserved material is needed
simply to be able to better describe the taxa and their morphs
(e.g., sexes), the variation within and among populations, and
for dissections to reveal internal morphological features to
improve and enhance revisionary treatments. Still other expeditions
are undertaken because, in those parts of the world where very
few insects have been collected, a region's fauna is so poorly
known that an expedition is needed to uncover what might be
there. An important spin-off of these expeditions is the vast
quantity of non-target insects that are captured during the
sampling events. Beyond that, direct observations of stiletto
flies in natural habitats greatly increases our knowledge of
their behavior and of the ecological relationships they have
with their surroundings. |
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 Australia
- November 1995-February 1996
New
Caledonia - January 1996
Great Plains
of United States - June 1996
Southern Africa -
Nov 1996
Great Sandy National
Park, Cooloola Section, Queensland, Australia - 29 Sept-5
Oct 1996 photos
Texas
- March 1997
Guatemala - May 1997
Baja California, Mexico - June 1997
photos
Coastal Southern California
- June 1997
Southwestern United States
- June/July 1997
Australia - 1997-1998 field trips
by the Yeates Systematics Lab
Utah - July 1997
Chile & Argentina
- Sept.-November 1997
Madagascar - May 1998
Southwestern United States
- June/July 1998
Colorado - July 1998
New Caledonia -
November 1998
Brisbane Forest Park
(Aug.-Dec. 1998) & Mount
Walsh (Dec. 1998), Australia
California - Dec. 1998
Tasmania - Dec.
1998
Western Australia -
Jan. 1999
Tunisia
- June 2000
Spain and Greece - May/June
2000
Washington (state) - June 2000
Southern
Illinois - August 2000
Australian
Expeditions (2001-2003)
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Other
Therevid PEET Activities
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