Hiroyuki Takaoka
Kyushu University Press, Fukuoka, Japan
2003, 581 pp.
Price: $170, Hardcover
ISBN: 4-87378-804-8

The prolific simuliid worker, Hiroyuki Takaoka, has explored one of the last biodiversity frontiers of the family Simuliidae—the eastern reaches of Indonesia—and produced another substantial contribution to the Australasian and Oriental literature in his third and largest book. The present monograph treats the simuliid fauna of three of the five major Indonesian islands and complements an earlier work on the black flies of Java (Takaoka, H. and D. M. Davies. 1996. Bishop Museum Bulletins in Entomology 6: 1–81). Indonesia is a tropical archipelago of more than 17,500 islands in southeastern Asia between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Its topography ranges from coastal lowlands to interior mountains, with snow-capped peaks reaching 5,000 m.

In this book, 87 species are treated, including a remarkable 71 described as new. All species are members of the most derived genus, Simulium, and are parceled among five subgenera (Gomphostilbia, Morops, Nevermannia, Wallacellum, and Simulium sensu stricto). More species can be expected; sampling was restricted to 231 stream sites during a 3-month period (July–September), corresponding to the dry season (June–September), except in Central Maluku where this period is part of the rainy season. Much of the land remains unsampled, particularly the high mountains; more than 75% of Indonesia’s largest province, Irian Jaya, is covered by dense tropical rainforest and will not easily yield a complete inventory. The simuliid fauna of Maluku and Irian Jaya is Australasian in nature, whereas that of Sulawesi is Oriental. The level of endemicity is extraordinary: 66.7% for Maluku, 76.7% for Irian Jaya, and 93.5% for Sulawesi.

All simuliid workers and anyone wishing to study the aquatic insects or the biodiversity of Indonesia will find this book essential, and those interested in island biogeography will discover plenty of data for analysis. Thumbing through the book’s 581 pages reveals an abundance of meticulous illustrations essential for accurate identification, accompanied by detailed descriptions of each life stage beyond the egg. Four-color photographic plates of larval black flies are provided, acknowledging the importance of colors and pigmentation patterns in the taxonomy of larvae.

The illustrations of pupal gills will be especially useful in species identification, the structural diversity rivaling that known for the Neotropical montane genus Gigantodax. Illustrations of the male genitalia typically include ventral, lateral, and terminal views. Slight variations in the angle of view of male genitalia can obfuscate subtle differences in shape; fortunately, care has been taken to ensure that each illustrated aspect of the genitalia is oriented in the same plane across species.

Succinct keys to larvae, pupae, males, and females supplement the taxonomic descriptions. A checklist of the 526 described black flies of the Australasian and Oriental Regions is given, along with maps showing, in broad brushstrokes, the global distributions of supraspecific taxa found in the Australasian and Oriental Regions.

The economic importance of black flies in eastern Indonesia is evidently negligible. Only reared adults were included in the examined material, suggesting a dearth of anthropophilic and other pestiferous species. Although the hosts and feeding behaviors of all 87 species remain veiled, they now can be revealed by workers armed with this identification manual.

The taxonomic difficulty of black flies, largely a function of their structural uniformity and small size, is legendary. In this book, more than 3.7% of the world’s 1,900 or so nominal species of black flies are described as new. Thank goodness this major taxonomic effort was in the hands of one of the world’s most competent simuliid workers.

Peter H. Adler
Division of Entomology
Clemson University
Clemson, SC