You’ve probably seen these organisms before. They’re green, shiny, and “quite nervous” according to Dr. Marc Pollet, who has been studying Dolichopodidae, long-legged flies, for decades. But there’s so much more to this group than what meets the eye. Take a deep dive into the fascinating world of flies with Marc, and learn a secret or two about the beauty of taxonomy, the importance of names, and what might be waiting to be discovered in your own backyard.

Dr. Marc Pollet’s paper “Discovery of a Lineage of Soil-Dwelling Medetera Species with Multi-Coloured Eyes in Southern Europe” can be found in volume 13 issue 11 of Insects.

An open access link is available here: https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13111012

New Species: Medetera aglaops, Medetera corsicana, Medetera gibbosipyga, Medetera hispanica, Medetera lusitana, Medetera parva, and Medetera rectipyga.

Episode image courtesy of Andreas Stark

Find Marc’s work on his INBO Page: https://pureportal.inbo.be/en/persons/marc-pollet

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod