Sherborn’s influence on Systema Dipterorum

Abstract

Flies make up more than 10% of the planetary biota and our well-being depends on how we manage our coexistence with flies. Storing and accessing relevant knowledge about flies is intimately connected with using correct names, and Systema Dipterorum provides a single authoritative classification for flies developed by consensus among contributors. The 160,000 species of flies currently known are distributed among 160 recent families and some 12,000 genera, which with their synonyms encompass a total of more than a quarter of a million names. These names and their associated classification are shared with relevant global solutions. Sherborn appears to have done remarkably well indexing Diptera names with an overall error rate estimated to be close to 1%.