A01381 - Brian Stuckenberg, Lord of the (African) Flies

Brian Roy Stuckenberg (b. April 7, 1930 – d. February 8, 2009) was a South African entomologist who specialized in Diptera -- flies.

Stuckenberg was of Danish descent, his great uncle was the poet Viggo Stuckenberg.  Stuckenberg was head of Entomology at the Natal Museum (now KwaZulu-Natal Museum) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.  He became Africa’s leading dipterist, building one of the largest collections of Afrotropical flies in the world. He wrote over 100 publications, including the sections on the families Blephariceridae, Thaumaleidae, Xylomyidae, Rhagionidae, Athericidae, Apioceridae and Opomyzidae in the Catalogue of the Diptera of the Afrotropical Region.

Stuckenberg collected Diptera in South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Chile and Argentina. He was a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London.