Bryan D Lessard

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | CSIRO · Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC)

The hairy-eyed horse fly tribe Scionini comprises over 280 species and are austral in distribution, occurring in Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and South America. Most adult females are blood-feeding and can transmit multiple diseases to humans and animals, although both sexes are important pollinators of many plants. The current taxonomy of th...

Horse flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) are recognised for their medical and veterinary importance, but they also have an important role in pollination. The genus Scaptia Walker 1850 contains more than 100 species and comprises seven subgenera with an exclusively southern distribution from Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and South America. Five new Aus...

Chrysomya rufifacies is an ecologically and forensically important blowfly, widespread in Australasia, the Orient and the Americas. The recent molecular studies of Wallman et al. (2005) showed significant levels of nucleotide divergence between Australian populations of this species based on the cytochrome oxidase subunit two (COII) gene, suggestin...

Alpine plant‐pollinator communities play an important role in the functioning of alpine ecosystems, which are highly threatened by climate change. However, we still have a poor understanding of how environmental factors and spatio‐temporal variability shape these communities. Here, we investigate what drives structure and beta diversity in a plant‐...

Background Culex ( Culex ) tritaeniorhynchus is an important vector of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) affecting feral pigs, native mammals and humans. The mosquito species is widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe, and thought to be absent in Australia. Methods In February and May, 2020 the Medical Entomology unit of th...

• Understanding how increasing risk of frequent and severe fires affects biodiversity and ecosystem function is important for effective conservation and recovery, but large knowledge gaps exist for many taxa in many parts of the world, especially invertebrates. • After Australia's 2019–2020 catastrophic bushfire disaster, estimates of biodiversity...

Antissella White, 1914 is a small genus of soldier flies endemic to Australia, previously thought to comprise only two described species and suspected to have a role in pollination. Six new species of Antissella are named, described and illustrated herein, and an updated identification key to all known species is provided. The new species include:...

Bombyliidae is a very species‐rich and widespread family of parasitoid flies with more than 250 genera classified into 17 extant subfamilies. However, little is known about their evolutionary history or how their present‐day diversity was shaped. Transcriptomes of 15 species and anchored hybrid enrichment (AHE) sequence captures of 86 species, repr...

Many eye‐catching and undescribed species of Australian soldier flies have been collected but left undiagnosed in entomological collections. We describe Opaluma Lessard & Woodley gen. nov., a new genus of iridescent soldier fly endemic to Australia from the subfamily Antissinae, and provide an updated key to the five Australian antissine genera. Se...

A taxonomic treatment to genera is provided for the Australian members of the soldier fly subfamily Sarginae. This includes an updated identification key for the Australian genera, along with the diagnosis and illustration of Ptecticus Loew, 1855 and Sargus Fabricius, 1798, and three newly recorded genera: Cephalochrysa Kertész, 1912 (Cephalochrysa...

We review the generic limits and classification of the little studied Australian fauna of the soldier fly subfamily Chiromyzinae. Among chiromyzines are many species that are confirmed agricultural pests of sugar cane, maize and grasses, including Inopus rubriceps (Macquart, 1847) that has been introduced in New Zealand and the United States. A tax...

A taxonomic treatment for the genera of the soldier fly subfamily Stratiomyinae is provided for the Australian fauna, including the first key to the Australian genera and updated key for the genus Acanthasargus White, 1914. Each genus is diagnosed and illustrated, including: Acanthasargus , Odontomyia Meigen, 1803, the newly recorded genus Prosopoc...

Natural history collections are essential for understanding the world’s biodiversity and drive research in taxonomy, systematics, ecology and biosecurity. One of the biggest challenges faced is the decline of new taxonomists and public interest in collections-based research, which is alarming considering that an estimated 70% of the world’s species...

Early diverging brachyceran fly lineages underwent a rapid radiation approximately 180 Ma, coincident in part with the origin of flowering plants. This region of the fly tree includes 25 000 described extant species with diverse ecological roles such as blood-feeding (haematophagy), parasitoidism, predation, pollination and wood-feeding (xylophagy)...

Social media has revolutionized the way research and museum collections communicate with the general public by disseminating knowledge and information in real time. Currently there are limited studies examining the use of social media by museums and entomological collections to engage the general public online. Social media has the power to promote...

A taxonomic treatment is provided for the Australian fauna of the soldier fly subfamily Hermetiinae, including a diagnosis of the subfamily based on the Australian fauna, a key to the two genera found in Australia, and a key to Australian species of Hermetia Latreille, 1804. The Australian fauna is illustrated and revised, including the redescripti...

Published research has offered contradictory evidence of the occurrence of nocturnal oviposition by carrion-breeding blowflies, a behavior that can affect the interpretation of forensic estimates of a minimum post mortem interval (minPMI) by up to 12 hours, depending on latitude and season. The majority of published studies are from the northern he...

Available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUrv57P0VAg This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Dr Bryan Lessard, aka Bry the Fly Guy, is an entomologist who travels the world collecting flies and describing new species to add to our understanding of biodiversit...

New material has accumulated in several Australian Museums since Mackerras' extensive 1960's revision of the austral horse fly genus Scaptia Walker 1850, including one new species of Scaptia (Scaptia) Walker, 1850 and two new species of Scaptia (Myioscaptia) Mackerras, 1955. The new species are Scaptia (Scaptia) aurinigra Lessard, sp. n. and Scapti...

Horse flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) are ecologically important pollinators and vectors of many disease-causing organisms, as adult females are known to mechanically transfer multiple disease agents during feeding affecting humans, livestock, and many native mammals. Scaptia (Pseudoscione) Lutz in Lutz, Araujo, & Fonseca 1918 has the widest distributio...

A new genus of Australian and New Zealand horse fly, Anzomyia Lessard, gen.n., is described, with its type species Anzomyia anomala (Mackerras) originally placed in the Scaptia (Walker, 1850) subgenus Pseudoscione (Lutz, 1918). The new genus Anzomyia is diagnosed and illustrated, along with the description of three new species. A taxonomic key is a...

Horse flies are considered significant pests due to their blood-feeding and transmission of diseases to both humans and livestock, but also have a beneficial role in the pollination of plants. The horse fly genus Scaptia has an exclusively austral distribution occurring predominantly in Australia, with smaller diversifications in New Zealand, New G...