Northern Georgia Mountaintops

Diptera Expedition - May 20-26, 2000

Greg Dahlem Monty & Grace Wood

In May of the year 2000, Greg Dahlem and Monty & Grace Wood traveled to the mountains of northern Georgia on an expedition to collect the elusive mountaintop species of flies in the families Sarcophagidae and Tachinidae. Many of the sites we visited were first reported in an article by Harold Rodney Dodge and John M. Seago: Sarcophagidae and other Diptera taken by trap and net on Georgia mountain summits in 1952. Ecology 35(1): 50-59, January 1954. Locality information for particular species of Sarcophagidae can be found in another article by Harold R. Dodge: A new sarcophagid genus with descriptions of fifteen new species (Diptera). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 49(3): 242-263. May, 1956.

A sarcophagid fly sitting on a fence rail

What follows is a brief description of our expedition with some pictures from the sites we visited. Our trip was very successful, in terms of collected material, and offered absolutely gorgeous views of this southern Appalachian area with each mountain we climbed. If anyone knows of other bare mountaintops that flies congregate upon, please let me know at dahlem@nku.edu

Click on the following buttons to find out more about that mountaintop.