{"id":91,"date":"2011-12-20T20:42:35","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T20:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/?page_id=91"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:28:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:28:46","slug":"91-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/91-2\/","title":{"rendered":"O. livdahli"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazing stiletto fly, Ozodiceromyia livdahli <\/em>Gaimari and Irwin<\/h2>\n

Former undergraduate Stephen D. Gaimari<\/span><\/a> (BA Clark Univ., 1990), who went on to graduate work in entomology culminating in a PhD (Illinois), and Michael Irwin discovered a new species of stiletto fly which they named Ozodiceromyia livdahli<\/em>.  No ordinary bottom-feeders, the larvae of this spectacular fly, found in Arizona and Mexico between 1000 and 2000 meters elevation, attack grubs and other insect larvae in the soil, including pests of agricultural crops!!<\/p>\n

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stiletto fly larva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astonishingly, there seem to be no photos of the larval stages of O. livdahli. <\/em>The photo above, of a closely related species, will have to suffice for now. Fortunately, Dr. Salvador Vitanza has kindly shared this excellent, rare photo of an adult female:<\/p>\n

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Don’t miss out!<\/h2>\n
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Steve Gaimari, entomologist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

View excerpts of Dr.Gaimari’s seminal paper describing this species (fear not, the boring parts, i.e. those concerning species other than O. livdahli<\/em>, have been removed): Abstract, introduction,<\/a> Species Description,<\/a> Even more species<\/a> description,<\/a> head morphology, distribution, <\/a>male genitalia<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Gaimari, now retired and formerly Environmental Program Manager at the Plant Pest Diagnostics Center, California Department of Food & Agriculture, chose to study insects after observing that if his professor could actually make a living doing that, then he certainly could, as well.  While this is not Dr. Gaimari’s first contribution to science, it certainly is his most important to date (though his career has been quite distinguished). Notably, Dr. Gaimari continues to serve as President of the Dipterists Society, as well as editor of Fly Times<\/em>, the society’s primary publication.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Gaimari as an undergraduate, on expedition in Bermuda. Dr. Gaimari is on the right moped, not to be confused with Michelle Willey (Ph.D. ’95) on the left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazing stiletto fly, Ozodiceromyia livdahli Gaimari and Irwin Former undergraduate Stephen D. Gaimari (BA Clark Univ., 1990), who went on to graduate work in entomology culminating in a PhD (Illinois), and Michael Irwin discovered a new species of stiletto fly which …<\/p>\n

O. livdahli<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-91","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/tlivdahl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}