Short Communication |
Corresponding author: Kirstin A. Williams ( kwilliams@nmsa.org.za ) Academic editor: Torsten Dikow
© 2023 Kirstin A. Williams, Jacobus C. Steenkamp, Louwrens P. Snyman.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Williams KA, Steenkamp JC, Snyman LP (2023) Beyond Asilidae: The collecting effort of Dr Jason Londt as represented by non-Asilidae Diptera, Hemiptera and Mecoptera, housed in the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, South Africa. In: Dikow T, Williams K, Midgley J (Eds) Festschrift for Jason Gilbert Hayden Londt. African Invertebrates 64(2): 79-84. https://doi.org/10.3897/afrinvertebr.64.98587
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collections, Jason Londt, types
Dr Jason Londt took up the position of Assistant Director at the Natal Museum (now
KwaZulu-Natal Museum –
In order to assess Jason Londt’s collection efforts, all the digitised records from the
For an evaluation of collection effort over time, all records lacking a year were excluded. The remaining records were partitioned into five-year increments. The total number of records per partition was plotted using base R in R studio.
The contribution of Jason Londt’s collection efforts were evaluated in terms of diversity and type specimens. All the records were filtered to unique names and blanks were removed. A count of unique taxon determination for all records and types in terms of family, genus and species designation (unique binomial name) was done. All records lacking a full species designation (i.e. binomial name) were excluded and were thus not counted. The same unique taxon determination was applied only to records with type status. Finally, a map of the localities for all the type specimens was plotted using QGIS version 3.22.13.
Jason Londt is best known for his extensive work on Asilidae, but he also had an interest in Mecoptera that was established well before his appointment at the then Natal Museum. He published over a dozen papers on Mecoptera during his career, described a genus, 16 species and re-described six species that created new synonymies (
Representation of the diversity of Hemiptera, Mecoptera and non-asilid Diptera housed at the
Total | Families | Genera | Species | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mecoptera | ||||
Records | 328 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
Holotypes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Allotypes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Paratypes | 67 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Hemiptera | ||||
Records | 5118 | 43 | 217 | 263 |
Holotypes | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Allotypes | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Paratypes | 8 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Diptera | ||||
Records | 27929 | 91 | 631 | 1139 |
Holotypes | 95 | 31 | 61 | 95 |
Paratypes | 281 | 32 | 58 | 89 |
Neotypes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
MS Types | 78 | 5 | 9 | NA |
The number of Hemiptera that Jason Londt collected and deposited in the Museum was at its highest in the 1980s, increasing again in the early 2000s (Fig.
Jason Londt not only collected Asilidae, he also collected many other Diptera. Nearly 28 000 non-asilid Diptera specimens bear his collection label in the Museum. Of those specimens, 95 have been described as new species, of which 18 were attributed to him (Table
The species named after Jason Londt from material he collected housed in the
Species | Family | Author, Date |
---|---|---|
Acrocera londti | Acroceridae | Barraclough, 1984 |
Afrocamilla londti | Camillidae | Barraclough, 1997 |
Teloglabrus londti | Diopsidae | Feijen, 1983 |
Paracleius jasoni | Dolichopodidae | Grichanov, 2004 |
Pseudargyrochlamys jasoni | Dolichopodidae | Grichanov, 2020 |
Leucophenga londti | Drosophilidae | Bächli et al., 2005 |
Acarterus londti | Empididae | Sinclair, 1996 |
Atherigona londti | Muscidae | Muller, 2015 |
Mycomya londti | Mycetophilidae | Väisänen, 1994 |
Chaetonerius londti | Neriidae | Barraclough, 1993 |
Aenigmatistes londti | Phoridae | Disney, 1991 |
Mesanopin londti | Platystomatidae | Whittington, 2003 |
Nemotelus londtorum | Stratiomyidae | Mason, 1997 |
Syritta londti | Syrphidae | Lyneborg & Barkemeyer, 2005 |
Philoliche (Ommatiosteres) londti | Tabanidae | Chainey, 1983 |
Orthactia londti | Therevidae | Lyneborg, 1988 |
Vermilynx jasoni | Vermileonidae | Stuckenberg, 1996 |
Vermipardus londti | Vermileonidae | Stuckenberg, 1995 |
While the bulk of Jason Londt’s collecting was done in South Africa and specifically the KwaZulu-Natal Province where the
The value of Jason Londt’s collecting is clearly seen in the number of new species that have been described from the material that he collected. Beyond his world-renowned contribution to the taxonomy of Asilidae, Jason Londt’s collection efforts have not only helped shape the entomology collection at the