New ‘gogga’ species found on Vryheid Hill

RETIRED EKZN Wildlife District Conservator, Alex Wood, will be remembered by science, and especially by entomologists, for ever. He has had a new species of robber fly named after him – Millenarius woodi.

The holotype of this previously unknown species was collected in the open grassland on the Vryheid Hill Nature Reserve, and named, by Dr Jason Londt. Wikipedia defines a holotype as: “A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype.”

Every other Millenarius woodi ever discovered will be identified based on a comparison to this specimen.

Said Alex Wood in an e-mail, “If you had given me a few million guesses, I wouldn’t have got this one right! …and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with robber flies!!”

He added later, “With reference to the expert, Jason Londt: The Robber Fly is a predator fly, generally black in colour (an adaptation to absorb heat from sunlight as they are active in the winter months). It is about 2.5cm long. There are over 250 species in Africa.(my interpretation; it looks like a large, black, big-eyed and hairy mosquito) – (20 000 different African fly species)……amazing !!

“They are quite easy to spot as they almost invariably rest on rocks/stones or open ground during the day.

“They feed on a wide variety of insect prey which they are able to spot as they fly past from their open perches which they then catch with their long bristly legs.

“They then stab their prey with their piercing mouth parts simultaneously injecting saliva which dissolves the internal organs and quickly kills the prey.

“The resulting ‘soup’ is then sucked up before the empty shell is discarded.”

Congratulations, Alex.