ONE AMONG MANY: Stenochironomus gibbus (above) and Manoa xianjuensis (below) are just two members of the hyperdiverse Chironomidae family of flies. XIAO-LONG LIN
When Xiao-Long Lin started a master’s/PhD combo program in the College of Life Sciences at Nankai University in Tianjin, China, in 2010, he was just hoping that the degree would help him land a job. But once he got a taste of identifying new insect species, there was no turning back.
He focused on cataloging diversity in nonbiting midges of the chironomid family. “I spent all my time collecting a lot of specimens in summer and in winter in one province,” he recalls. “I love it. It’s like an adventure to discover more species.” All told, he collected thousands of specimens in China’s Zhejiang province, comprising more than 300 species—38 of which were new to science.
Given the size of the chironomid family, though, perhaps ...
