List of Titles

# SideHustle: Jason GH Londt’s contribution to holdings of the South African Cicadidae (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha) in the KwaZulu-Natal Museum

- Villet, Martin H

Authors: Villet, Martin H
Date: 2023
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/440598 , vital:73796 , 10.3897/afrinvertebr.64.100851
Description: Jason GH Londt contributed almost a quarter of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum’s specimens of Cicadidae, including a strong sample of females, and probably the best set to date of African records of predation on cicadas by robber flies. The collection provides evidence that robber flies catch more male cicadas; speculatively, because attacks on the heavier-bodied female fail more often. The metadata derived from these specimens also provide a small gazetteer of Londt’s collecting sites.
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Date Issued: 2023

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A new and earlier record of Chrysomya megacephala in South Africa, with notes on another exotic species, Calliphora vicina (Diptera Calliphoridae)

- Williams, Kirstin A, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Williams, Kirstin A , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2006
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/440710 , vital:73805 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC84554
Description: South African records of Chrysomya megacephala and Calliphora vicina are reviewed and plotted on maps. Dispersal routes of these two forensically and medically important blowfly species are discussed. Emphasised is the importance of deposition of voucher material in museum collections.
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Date Issued: 2006

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A new genus and three new species of South African Cicadettini (Hemiptera Cicadidae Cicadettinae).

- Sanborn, Allen F, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Sanborn, Allen F , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2020
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441261 , vital:73871 , https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4885.4.7
Description: Ingcainyenzane irhiniensis n. gen., n. sp. and Ingcainyenzane nolukhanyoensis n. gen., n. sp. are described from Eastern Cape and Ingcainyenzane umgeniensis n. gen., n. sp. is described from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Notes on its biology of the species and a key to species of the genus are also provided.
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Date Issued: 2020

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A new species of Buyisa Distant, 1907 (Hemiptera Cicadidae Cicadettinae Cicadettini) from South Africa

- Sanborn, Allen F, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Sanborn, Allen F , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2021
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441318 , vital:73877 , https://doi.org/10.4289/0013-8797.123.1.199
Description: A new species of the cicada genus Buyisa Distant, 1907 is described from South Africa for an undetermined species referenced in the literature. Buyisa eccaensis new species is described and illustrated and notes on its biology are provided. A key to the officially described species of Buyisa is also included.
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Date Issued: 2021

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A PCA-based modelling technique for predicting environmental suitability for organisms from presence records

- Robertson, Mark P, Caithness, N, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Robertson, Mark P , Caithness, N , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2001
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442609 , vital:74014 , https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1472-4642.2001.00094.x
Description: We present a correlative modelling technique that uses locality records (associated with species presence) and a set of predictor variables to produce a statistically justifiable probability response surface for a target species. The probability response surface indicates the suitability of each grid cell in a map for the target species in terms of the suite of predictor variables. The technique constructs a hyperspace for the target species using principal component axes derived from a principal components analysis performed on a training dataset. The training dataset comprises the values of the predictor variables associated with the localities where the species has been recorded as present. The origin of this hyperspace is taken to characterize the centre of the niche of the organism. All the localities (grid‐cells) in the map region are then fitted into this hyperspace using the values of the predictor variables at these localities (the prediction dataset). The Euclidean distance from any locality to the origin of the hyperspace gives a measure of the ‘centrality’ of that locality in the hyperspace. These distances are used to derive probability values for each grid cell in the map region. The modelling technique was applied to bioclimatic data to predict bioclimatic suitability for three alien invasive plant species (Lantana camara L., Ricinus communis L. and Solanum mauritianum Scop.) in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. The models were tested against independent test records by calculating area under the curve (AUC) values of receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves and kappa statistics. There was good agreement between the models and the independent test records. The pre‐processing of climatic variable data to reduce the deleterious effects of multicollinearity, and the use of stopping rules to prevent overfitting of the models are important aspects of the modelling process.
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Date Issued: 2001

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A review of the alderfly genus Leptosialis Esben-Petersen (Megaloptera, Sialidae) with description of a new species from South Africa

- Price, Benjamin W, Liu, Xingyue, de Moor, Ferdy C, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Price, Benjamin W , Liu, Xingyue , de Moor, Ferdy C , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2012
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441461 , vital:73891 , https://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=2856
Description: The monotypic South African alderfly genus Leptosialis Esben-Petersen, 1920 is reviewed and Leptosialis africana Esben-Petersen, 1920 is redescribed. In the process a new species of alderfly Leptosialis necopinata sp. n. from the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of South Africa is recognised and described. Within Sialidae the new species most closely resembles Leptosialis africana. A key to the two species of Leptosialis using both adult and larval characters is provided.
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Date Issued: 2012

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A survey of fruit-feeding insects and their parasitoids occurring on wild olives, Olea europaea ssp. cuspidata, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa

- Mkize, Nolwazi, Hoelmer, Kim A, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Mkize, Nolwazi , Hoelmer, Kim A , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2008
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441694 , vital:73907 , https://doi.org/10.1080/09583150802450154
Description: Fruits of wild olives, Olea europaea ssp. cuspidata (Wall. ex G. Don) Cif., were collected in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, during 2003–2005 to quantify levels of fruit-infesting pests and their parasitoids. Two species of Tephritidae, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) and B. biguttula (Bezzi), were the most abundant insects recovered and were reared from most samples. Fruit infestation rates by the Bactrocera spp. were generally below 8% and over half of the infestations were under 1%. When parasitism occurred in samples with flies, levels ranged from 7 to 83%. Several species of opiine braconid wasps, Psyttalia concolor (Szépligeti), Psyttalia lounsburyi (Silvestri), and Utetes africanus (Szépligeti) and one braconine wasp, Bracon celer Szépligeti, were reared from fruits containing B. oleae and/or B. biguttula. Chalcidoid parasitoids and seed wasps included seven species of Eurytomidae (Eurytoma oleae, Eurytoma sp., and Sycophila sp.), Ormyridae (Ormyrus sp.), Torymidae (Megastigmus sp.), and Eupelmidae (Eupelmus afer and E. spermophilus). One species of moth, Palpita unionalis (Hübner) (Crambidae), was recovered in very low numbers and without parasitoids. The survey results indicate that fruit flies might not become economic pests of the nascent commercial olive industry in the Eastern Cape, and the small numbers present may be controlled to a considerable level by natural enemies.
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Date Issued: 2008

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A watershed study on genetic diversity phylogenetic analysis of the Platypleura plumosa (Hemiptera Cicadidae) complex reveals catchment-specific lineages

- Price, Benjamin W, Barker, Nigel P, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Price, Benjamin W , Barker, Nigel P , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2010
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441711 , vital:73909 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2009.10.011
Description: Historical biogeography studies have at their disposal a small suite of vicariance models to explain genetic differentiation within and between species. One of these processes involves the role of river catchments and their associated watersheds, in driving diversification and is applicable to both aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Although the idea of catchments structuring the genetic history of aquatic organisms is reasonably well understood, their effect on terrestrial organisms has largely been overlooked, with relevant studies being limited in scope. South Africa presents a perfect test-bed for elucidating this mechanism of diversification due to its rich biodiversity, range of climatic environments and many large river catchments. Here we use the cicadas of the Platypleura plumosa complex to highlight the importance of catchments and their associated watersheds in driving diversification of terrestrial invertebrates that lack an aquatic life-stage. Population structure was found to correspond to primary and in some cases secondary catchments; highlighting the need to include information on catchment structure when formulating hypotheses of population diversification. Recognizing that climate change in the near future is likely to alter the environment, and particularly precipitation patterns, insight into recent patterns of population change related to catchments may be useful in a conservation context.
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Date Issued: 2010

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Advances in entomological methods for death time estimation

- Villet, Martin H, Amendt, Jens

Authors: Villet, Martin H , Amendt, Jens
Date: 2011
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441722 , vital:73910 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-249-6_11
Description: The development of entomological methods for estimating the time of death has been rapid in the last decade, and new methods are on the horizon. These developments are reviewed with specific reference to experimental design, established and new techniques, and mathematical modelling for forensic retrodiction. The techniques include the use of electron microscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, cuticular hydrocarbon profiles, and real-time PCR to estimate the age of immature insects found on corpses, based on their stage of development. Near-infrared spectrograph and pteridine fluorescence techniques can be applied to this task on adult insects. The use of ecological succession in the carrion insect community is also introduced briefly. Finally, the creation and uses of standard techniques in forensic entomology is discussed. We recommend that two steps in this standardisation process are that physiological and ecological studies should be reported in physiological time wherever this is appropriate, and that the type of post-mortem interval being estimated should be stipulated more explicitly than is currently common.
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Date Issued: 2011

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Advances in entomotoxicology: Weaknesses and strengths

- Campobasso, Carlo P, Bugelli, Valentina, Carfora, Anna, Borriello, Renata, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Campobasso, Carlo P , Bugelli, Valentina , Carfora, Anna , Borriello, Renata , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2019
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , book chapter
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442717 , vital:74027 , ISBN 9781351163767 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351163767-13/advances-entomotoxicology-carlo-campobasso-valentina-bugelli-anna-carfora-renata-borriello-martin-villet
Description: Forensic entomotoxicology deals mainly with the analysis of the tissues of insects to identify toxicants present in their food sources. Insects feeding on human tissues can ingest all of the xenobiotic substances taken by living individuals, such as common prescription and illicit drugs. Ecotoxicology is a well-established scientific discipline from which environmental forensic entomotoxicology is derived as a relatively new branch. Entomotoxicology also addresses the effects of drugs and toxins on arthropod development, survival, morphology, and their implications for estimating postmortem intervals. The primary focus of a forensic toxicologist is the detection of toxicants from human tissue samples to help in determining the cause of death. Like nutrients, toxicants encountered by an insect may be assimilated, digested, absorbed, and either sequestered, metabolized, or excreted. Entomological samples are currently of limited quantitative value in forensic toxicology.
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Date Issued: 2019

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Advantages of using development models of the carrion beetles Thanatophilus micans (Fabricius) and T. mutilatus (Castelneau)(Coleoptera Silphidae) for estimating minimum post mortem intervals, verified with case data

- Ridgeway, Jaryd A, Midgley, John M, Collett, Isabel J, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Ridgeway, Jaryd A , Midgley, John M , Collett, Isabel J , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2014
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441737 , vital:73911 , https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-013-0865-0
Description: Some beetles are as useful as blow flies for estimating the minimum post mortem interval (PMImin) or time since death. Examples include Thanatophilus micans (Fabricius) and Thanatophilus mutilatus (Castelneau), two geographically and ecologically overlapping African beetles. Molecular means of identifying these species, descriptions of their natural history, thermal summation models for the development of each species, and a case in which T. micans was recovered are presented. These beetles colonise bodies soon after death, their development spans more time than that of flies, and they may be little affected by maggot-generated heat. From an experimental perspective, they can be reared individually, which allows the identification of sick individuals and has analytical advantages relative to fly larvae that must be reared in groups. Estimating minimum post mortem intervals for both species using the case data strongly suggests that developmental models parameterised for one species should not be used to make forensic estimates for closely related species for which no specific model is available and emphasises the need for correct identifications.
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Date Issued: 2014

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African carrion ecosystems and their insect communities in relation to forensic entomology

- Villet, Martin H

Authors: Villet, Martin H
Date: 2011
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442439 , vital:73984 , http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/Online/GSBOnline/OnlinePT_5_1.html
Description: African carrion communities contain representatives of the same families that occur in carrion communities on other continents. Checklists and identification guides are tabulated, and the natural histories of core members of the terrestrial community are outlined. Because of strong phylogenetic trends in the biology of the families, the species are effectively ecological surrogates of their relatives elsewhere. These phylogenetic trends also allow the definition of a set of guilds of functionally equivalent species that unify the study of carrion communities world-wide, and a revised suite of guilds is described with both synecological and forensic purposes in mind. Although the decomposition process has been arbitrarily subdivided into stages, they have little direct relation to the dynamics of the carrion community, and should be treated as landmarks rather than phases. Community turnover follows a qualitatively predictable succession, with the greatest species richness and diversity around the ecotone-like transition from ‘wet-phase’ to ‘dry-phase’ carrion habitats. These habitats are differentiated along interacting ecological gradients of dietary quality, competition, and risk of predation, which are important to the core guilds. Competition and predation have strong effects on population dynamics of community members, but link particular species only weakly, so that the succession pattern largely reflects the autecology of the individual species. Discrete waves of species are absent, which increases the temporal resolution, and therefore the forensic value, of the succession as a ‘clock’. The forensic significance of various aspects of community and trophic dynamics are discussed, and means of applying ecological theory to investigations are reviewed.
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Date Issued: 2011

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Allopatric speciation in the flightless Phoberus capensis (Coleoptera: Trogidae) group, with description of two new species

- Strümpher, Werner P, Sole, Catherine L, Villet, Martin H, Scholtz, Clarke H

Authors: Strümpher, Werner P , Sole, Catherine L , Villet, Martin H , Scholtz, Clarke H
Date: 2016
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , book chapter
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442730 , vital:74028 , ISBN , https://brill.com/view/journals/ise/47/2/article-p149_4.xml
Description: The name Phoberus capensis (Scholtz) is applied to a small flightless, keratinophagous beetle endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. Its gross distribution stretches from roughly 1000 km from the Cederberg (32°24’22” S, 19°04’50” E) to Grahamstown (33°20’07” S, 26°32’50” E). The populations are spatially discrete, restricted to relict forests of the southern Cape and disjunct high montane refugia of the Cape Fold Mountains. We test the hypothesis that there is more than one distinct species nested within the name P . capensis . Phylogenetic relationships among populations were inferred using molecular sequence data. The results support three distinct evolutionary lineages, which were also supported by morphological characters. Divergence time estimates suggest Pliocene-Pleistocene diversification. Based on these results, it is suggested that the P. capensis lineage experienced climatically-driven allopatric speciation with sheltered Afrotemperate forests and high mountain peaks serving as important refugia in response to climatic ameliorations. The P. capensis complex thus represents a speciation process in which flight-restricted populations evolved in close allopatry, possibly as recently as the Pleistocene. Two divergent and geographically distinct lineages are described as novel species: The new species, P . disjunctus sp. n. and P . herminae sp. n., are illustrated by photographs of habitus and male aedeagi.
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Date Issued: 2016

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Amplified fragment length polymorphism confirms reciprocal monophyly in Chrysomya putoria and Chrysomya chloropyga: a correction of reported shared mtDNA haplotypes

- Picard, C J, Villet, Martin H, Wells, J D

Authors: Picard, C J , Villet, Martin H , Wells, J D
Date: 2012
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441760 , vital:73914 , DOI:10.4236/jcdsa.2012.22018
Description: Reinvestigation of mitochondrial haplotypes previously reported to be shared between the Afrotropical blowflies Chrysomya putoria Weidemann and Chrysomya chloropyga Weidemann (Diptera: Calliphoridae) revealed an error resulting from the misidentification of specimens. Preliminary amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis of the original and additional individuals again failed to find reciprocal monophyly, leading to a re‐examination of the specimens for diagnostic male genitalic characters that were first described following the earlier study. Four of the original study specimens were found to have been misidentified, and definitive analysis of both mtDNA and AFLP genotypes using phylogenetic analysis and genetic assignment showed that each species was indeed reciprocally monophyletic. In addition to correcting the earlier error, this study illustrates how AFLP analysis can be used for efficient and effective specimen identification through both phylogenetic analysis and genetic assignment, and suggests that the latter method has special advantages for identification when no conspecific specimens are represented in the reference database.
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Date Issued: 2012

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An accidental but safe and effective use of Lucilia cuprina (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in maggot debridement therapy in Alexandria, Egypt

- Tantawi, Tarek I, Williams, Kirstin A, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Tantawi, Tarek I , Williams, Kirstin A , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2010
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442454 , vital:73986 , https://doi.org/10.1093/jmedent/47.3.491
Description: The calliphorid fly, Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann), is known to cause serious malign myiasis in animals, whereas its sibling species Lucilia sericata (Meigen) is commonly a carrion breeder and is used in maggot debridement therapy (MDT). The current study reports an accidental involvement of L. cuprina in MDT in Alexandria, Egypt, that has proved to be safe and effective. In November 2008, the laboratory colonies of L. sericata (the species regularly used in MDT) at the Faculty of Science, Alexandria University were renewed by Lucilia flies collected as third instar larvae on exposed rabbit carcasses. Flies from the new colonies were successfully used to heal the diabetic foot wounds of two patients at Alexandria Main University Hospital. Analysis of DNA sequences and adult and larval morphology then revealed that these flies were and still are L. cuprina. Breeding of this species in carrion in Alexandria is a new record. Despite the safety of this strain of L. cuprina in MDT, entomologists rearing blow flies for the purpose of wound debridement should regularly maintain high quality assurance of their species’ identity to avoid possible clinical complications that may result from the introduction of an unexpected and invasive species to their laboratory colonies.
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Date Issued: 2010

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An inexpensive geometrical micrometer for measuring small, live insects quickly without harming them

- Villet, Martin H

Authors: Villet, Martin H
Date: 2007
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441860 , vital:73928 , https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1570-7458.2006.00520.x
Description: The article discusses the technical note for the journal" Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata," in the first quarter of 2007 issue. The author provides information about an inexpensive geometrical micrometer for measuring small, live insects rapidly and accurately without causing harm to the organism. The method he applied for making the measurements is related to the wedge micrometer as described by the scientist SD Porter in 1983.
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Date Issued: 2007

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Ancient and modern hybridization between Lucilia sericata and L. cuprina (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

- Williams, Kirstin A, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Williams, Kirstin A , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2013
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442633 , vital:74017 , 10.14411/eje.2013.029
Description: There are important but inconsistent differences in breeding site preference between the blow flies Lucilia sericata (Meigen, 1826) and L. cuprina (Wiedemann, 1830)(Diptera: Calliphoridae) that have significance for medical and veterinary science. These inconsistencies might arise from hybridisation. The species are difficult to distinguish using external morphology, although the male genitalia are distinctive and there are reliable molecular markers. Molecular evidence of modern hybridisation, derived from a newly developed nuclear marker, the period (per) gene, is presented here. This has implications for identifications of these species based on mtDNA, and may lead to an explanation of the medical and veterinary anomalies noted in these species.
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Date Issued: 2013

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Arthropod Fauna of the UAE Vol. 3, A. van Harten (Ed.): book review

- Villet, Martin H

Authors: Villet, Martin H
Date: 2010
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/451598 , vital:75062 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC32858
Description: It has been a year since the second volume of the UAE Insect Project's Arthropod Fauna of the United Arab Emirates was published, and several more members of the team of over 160 scientists from 27 countries have visited the UAE. This has provided several of the chapters in the third volume of this series, which contains contributions from 51 taxonomists from 20 countries, including South Africa. Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Tahoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the leadership of the editor, the series is settling down to a very high standard, especially in terms of its lavish illustrations, exquisite production and, of course, taxonomic rigour.
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Date Issued: 2010

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