Collaborators

Gail E. Kampmeier

Gail Kampmeier

Gail Kampmeier is a Senior Research Entomologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, which is part of the at the University of Illinois Prairie Research Institute. She works with database and web design, and supervises hourly workers for the therevid PEET project. She created, designed, and manages Mandala, the database system used on this project. She has demonstrated Mandala at professional meetings, seminars, and workshops, and worked with various PEET and other individuals on using FileMaker™ Pro and revising MANDALA for their use.

Dr. Donald Webb

Don Webb

Donald Webb is an Insect Systematist with the Center for Biodiversity, Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) and is an affiliate in the the Center for Economic Entomology (INHS) and the Departments of Entomology and Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During his 30 years at INHS, Don has developed an interest in a wide range of insect groups. His major interest is in the systematics of the lower brachycerous Diptera, in particular the families Rhagionidae, Solvidae, Athericidae, Vermilionidae, and Xylophagidae. He has produced faunal surveys of the Mecoptera and Tabanidae of Illinois and is currently finishing separate studies on the winter stoneflies of Illinois, the biota of Illinois caves, and the biota of Illinois springs in relation to water quality.

Don also collaborates with Mike Irwin in the systematics of the Therevidae of the World, and has published several revisions of the North and South American therevids.

Evert Schlinger

Evert Schlinger

Evert I. Schlinger is Professor Emeritus, Department of Entomological Sciences, University of California, Berkeley. He studies spider parasitoids of the fly family Acroceridae (Diptera). His laboratory, located in Santa Ynez, California, is associated with the Department of Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara. He is engaged in a long term study to elucidate the phylogeny, biogeography, and biology of acrocerids. His project uses MANDALA to manage their data.

J. Marie Metz

J. Marie Metz

J. Marie Metz began working as an illustrator with the therevid project in the fall of 1996 while a student at Parkland College. In January 1997, she became a graduate student in the Art & Design Department at the University of Illinois and is continuing to work on illustrating various internal structures for comparison among genera. She is a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. In August 1998, she began working full time on scientific illustration and part-time on Masters her degree and teaching certification. During the Spring of 1999, she taught Saturday Art School to children ages 6-8 at the University of Illinois. Her classroom and curriculum are used as examples for student teachers to emulate.

During much of 1999, the scientific illustrations rendered by J. Marie Metz, documenting characteristics of therevid (Diptera: Therevidae) flies, were produced using traditional media such as carbon dust, airbrush, pen and ink, and mixed media. Many of these illustrations were published in 2000-2001.

In September 1999, J. Marie spent two weeks at the Smithsonian Institution being introduced to computerized illustration by veteran scientific illustrator, George Venable. The advantages of computerized images over those traditionally rendered are that they are easily produced in color, stipple, or grayscale in the time it takes to render a single illustration; mistakes are easily corrected; images may be reproduced in various sizes and output in many formats; original artwork no longer has to be shipped for publication; and after the initial cost of the computer hardware and software, no other art supplies are needed. Thus at the end of 1999, J. Marie began climbing the steep learning curve to rendering all her new illustrations by computer, using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Mac G4, Wacom Tablet, and Epson scanner. She has designed the striking CD cover and disk artwork for the Diptera Data Dissemination Disk, Vol. 2, for the North American Dipterists’ Society, which is scheduled for release in 2001.

Brian Cassel

Brian Cassel

Brian Cassel is the laboratory technician in co-PI Wiegmann’s molecular systematics laboratory at NC State University. Brian is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance and operation of the laboratory. He is expert in genomic DNA extraction and purification, PCR amplification, automated sequencing, molecular cloning and computer-based editing, contig con struction and alignment of nucleotide sequence data. Cassel assists in field work and insect identification and is also responsible for management of the Wiegmann lab genomic DNA storage, voucher, and specimen databases. Brian Cassel also serves as a primary instructor for students and visitors in the molecular systematics laboratory, providing bench-level instruction in molecular systematic methods to our therevid PEET project graduate students. Brian won the Entomology Department Meritorious Service award for 2000, and is an avid insect collector with interests in beetles and flies.

Jeffrey Thorne

Jeffrey Thorne collaborates on the therevid PEET project with Co-PI, Brian Wiegmann’s lab. He is an Associate Professor, North Carolina State University, Department of Statistical Genetics. Thorne is developing methods for inferring divergence times from molecular phylogenetic data without the assumption of a molecular clock. These methods are being used to develop a time scale for major events in brachyceran fly evolution based on data generated in the Wiegmann lab for therevids and other Brachycera.

Stephen D. Gaimari

Stephen D. Gaimari

After receiving his Ph.D. in 1998 from the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois, Steve moved on to do postdoctoral research at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, concentrating on the phylogenetic relationships among genera of Lauxanioidea (also Diptera).  Steve’s doctoral research concentrated on elucidating the phylogenetic relationships within a small monophyletic group of therevine genera, also providing details on their biogeographical history.  After his doctoral and postdoctoral experiences, Steve accepted a position with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, continuing his NSF-funded research on Lauxanioidea, as well as on Therevidae (Steve is working on a major revision of the large cycloteline genus Ozodiceromyia Bigot).

Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch
California Department of Food and Agriculture
3294 Meadowview Road
Sacramento, CA 95832-1448, USA

tel. 916-262-1131
fax 916-262-1190
email sgaimari@cdfa.ca.gov

Dr. Leif Lyneborg

Dr. Lyneborg, who retired from the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, passed away September 2006, aged 74. In 2001 he published a monograph revising the large Australian genus Anabarhynchus with Michael Irwin and David Yeates. The co-authors visited Dr. Lyneborg in the fall of 1996 to work on the manuscript. More than 100 illustrations by J. Marie Metz were sent in December 1997 to complement the manuscript.

Greg Daniels

Dr. F. Christian Thompson, Consultant