Long legged fly named for UI CALS Professor Klowden

UI entomologist Marc Klowden has been honored with taxonomic immortality.“An insect was recently named after me,”Klowden confirmed. “It’s called Hercostomus klowdeni.”Discovered in a Korean mountain valley, this 3 millimeter long fly is one of a group commonly known as the longlegged flies.“It’s kind of funny for a short person to have a long-legged fly named after him,”Klowden said.

Whoever publishes the official description of a new species gets to name it. A scientist from the Czech Republic, Jirí Olejnícek, explained in the publication describing the species that the name refers to a “prominent American entomologist.” Olejnícek knows Klowden through Klowden’s research into mosquito physiology—particularly mosquito host-seeking behavior—and through Klowden’s role as editor, since 1992, of the international Journal of Vector Ecology.

Klowden’s journal is committed to publishing articles from scientists in developing countries to keep important research from falling into obscurity.“It’s really critical that they publish in an English-language journal,”he said, despite shortcomings in their written English.“I have spent a lot of time editing his [Olejnícek’s] publications, and he is very grateful.” Klowden also is author of Physiological Systems in Insects, published in 2002, a text used nationwide in college-level insect physiology classes.

Contact Klowden at mklowden@uidaho.edu.

--by Diane Noel

© 2004 University of Idaho, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.