Six New Species of Popeye Flies Discovered in Tahiti
Posted on August 11, 2013
Six new species of Popeye flies have been discovered in Tahiti. The L.A. Times reports that the flies were discovered by entomologist Neal Evenhuis of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. The flies are named after Popeye due to their large middle legs which bulge like Popeye's forearms. The eraser-sized flies are a yellowish color and have big red eyes.
The L.A. Times story says Evenhuis has now described 621 fly species in his career and he is working on identifying still more species from Tahiti from his lab at Bishop Museum.
The six new flies belong the the newly identified popeye group of the genus Campsicnemus from French Polynesia. The flies were found during surveys conducted from 2004 to 2007.
The newly discovered flies are described here in the journal, Zootaxa.