John Richard Vockeroth (2 May 1928 - 16 November 2012) was a Canadian

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

from

Broderick, Saskatchewan Broderick ( 2016 population: ) is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Rudy No. 284 and Census Division No. 11. The village is approximately east of the town of Outlook. History The post off ...

. Vockeroth graduated from the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

in 1948 with a B.A., followed in 1949 by a M.A. He got a D. Phil. in 1954 at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

with a thesis on

Scathophagidae The Scathophagidae are a small family (biology), family of Muscoidea which are often known as dung flies, although this misnomer, name is not appropriate except for a few species of the genus ''Scathophaga'' which do indeed pass their larval st ...

. Vockeroth was known for his vast knowledge of

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...

, especially on

Mycetophilidae Mycetophilidae is a family of small flies, forming the bulk of those species known as fungus gnats. About 3000 described species are placed in 150 genera, but the true number of species is undoubtedly much higher. They are generally found in the ...

Dolichopodidae Dolichopodidae, the long-legged flies, are a large, cosmopolitan family of true flies with more than 8,000 described species in about 250 genera. The genus '' Dolichopus'' is the most speciose, with some 600 species. Dolichopodidae generally a ...

, Syrphidae,

, and

Muscidae Muscidae are a family of flies found in the superfamily Muscoidea. Muscidae, some of which are commonly known as house flies or stable flies due to their synanthropy, are worldwide in distribution and contain almost 4,000 described species i ...

. Overall he first described one family, 42 genera and 130 species of Diptera. He published 120 academic publications on 27 families of flies. In 1997, Vockeroth received the entomological C. P. Alexander award, recognizing him as a leading North American dipterist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vockeroth, John Richard 1928 births 2012 deaths Dipterists Canadian entomologists Scientists from Saskatchewan