Petrozhitskaya L.V. 2020. [Principal researchers who studied black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) of Eastern Siberia, Russia] // Euroasian Entomological Journal. Vol.19. No.6: 309–312 [in Russian, with English summary].
Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Frunze Str. 11, Novosibirsk 630091 Russia. E-mail: lusia.petr@gmail.com
doi: 10.15298/euroasentj.19.6.02
ABSTRACT. Co-operation between the zoologist V.Ch. Dorogostaisky and the entomologist I.A. Rubtsov first promoted the study of black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) in the Baikal region of East Siberia during the 1930s. This facilitated Rubtsov to successfully study the systematics and ecology of black flies in the Palearctic. Of the 261 species described by Rubtsov cited in the Catalogue of Diptera of the World, 37% of all black flies are known from the Palearctic. Information on the diversity of the blood-sucking fly complex revealed by Rubtsov is particularly important for specialists in environmental and medical parasitology.
KEY WORDS: blood-sucking dipterans, black flies, Simuliidae, Baikal region, Eastern Siberia, Palearctic, biological diversity.