Murray State Professor Discovers New Fly Species and Its Named for Him

Whenever I read that someone, somewhere has discovered a new species of anything, I'm all ears. This may not sound like it has any connective tissue to this story, but those discoveries are why I have never completely discounted Bigfoot. Scientists discover new species with greater frequency than you may realize, and maybe the big fella and his ilk are just really good at hiding or camouflage.

Murray State Professor Discovers New Fly Species

So now, let's downsize from the Sasquatch to a new species of fly discovered by  Murray State University Professor Dr. Oliver Beckers. Dr. Beckers is an investigator and associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and his "eureka moment" came when he was in Florida collecting katydids in 2021.

Now, this is so cool. When Dr. Beckers got the katydids back to Murray, he thought that a pair of larvae he found on two of them was a species of parasitoid fly called Ormia lineifrons, which is not uncommon here in Kentucky. (This stuff is so educational, isn't it?)

But then the larvae matured into adulthood, and they turned out not to be what he thought they were. This new fly was thinner and darker. And it had no ears, like the parasitoid flies. (I had no idea flies had ears.)

This is certainly an exciting moment for Dr. Beckers and for the Murray State Department of Biological Sciences and its researchers. And, naturally, since he discovered it, the species is now named after him.

Readers, meet the newest species of parasitoid fly...Neomintho beckersi.