Wildlife at the Watering Hole - November 2026 - Dr Daniel J. Bickel

Undending Diversity: Can Life on the Planet be Completely described or does Taxonomy have Limits? 

Dr Daniel J. Bickel, Australian Museum

Estimates of the world’s biota range between 4-10 million morphospecies, of which some 1.8 million are described.  Proposals to describe all life on the earth fail to consider the immensity of “open-ended” or “dark” taxa, highly speciose groups that span several biogeographic regions, that are mostly uncollected/ unsorted, and often difficult to even define at a generic level.

Using the Diptera (true or two-winged flies) as an exemplar, examples of “open-ended taxa” or “dark” are presented from various families. Comparison of well–known European faunas with other faunas, local sympatry and endemicity, the frequency of singletons (single specimens) in ecological surveys, “hot-spots”, and the personal energy of taxonomists are discussed. The taxonomic description of all species is seen as impossible. But is that a bad thing?

Meet our speaker:

Daniel completed his PhD in Entomology at Cornell University in 1982 and specialises in the systematics of Diptera, particularly the group Empidoidea. Now retired, he continues to investigate Australasia’s extraordinarily rich fly fauna, describing it as “much more entertaining than daytime TV!”