Phormia Regina - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Phormia regina was described by the German entolomogist Johann Wilhelm Meigen in 1826. Its specific epithet is derived from the Latin regina 'queen'. Meigen's career works were mainly involved in the taxonomical aspect of identifying different species of Diptera. Spending a lot of time classifying species based on wing ventilation as well as, antennae, he discovered this was not sufficient to classify these dipteran species. He then reasoned that species can only identified by combination of characteristics; this technique later became known as the eclectic method.