Passing of Antony Downes

 

by Art Borkent

 

     I regret to inform you that our valued colleague J. Antony Downes, preceeded in death by his wife Sheila, died in his sleep on 24 June 2003 at age 89. He was born in Wimbledon, England, and came to Canada in 1953 to join the Veterinary & Medical Entomology Unit. For 11 years he was the head of the Experimental Biology Section of the Entomology Research Institute in Ottawa. Antony was the general secretary at the 10th International Congress of Entomology in 1956. He was a Fellow of the Entomological Society of Canada, received the Gold Medal Award of the Entomological Society of Canada, and was an Honorary Member of the International Congresses of Dipterology.  Antony was an expert in Ceratopogonidae, Empididae, and Lepidoptera and he had a broad knowledge of dipteran behaviour, ecology and evolution.

 

    The following is a list of his publications that, as far as I know, includes all those that concern Ceratopogonidae (plus a few extras that do not).  Antony published further papers and chapters on other subjects which are mostly not included here.

 

Downes, J.A. 1950.  Habits and life-cycle of Culicoides nubeculosus Mg.  Nature 166:510-511.

 

Downes, J.A. and D.S. Kettle. 1952.  Descriptions of three species of Culicoides Latreille (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) new to science, together with notes on, and a revised key to the British species of the pulicaris and obsoletus groups. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London 21:61-78.

 

Downes, J.A. 1955.  Observations on the swarming flight and mating of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae).  Trans. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. 106:213‑236, pls. 1‑2.

 

Downes, J.A. 1955.  The food habits and description of Atrichopogon pollinivorus sp. n. (Diptera:

Ceratopogonidae).  Trans. R. Ent. Soc. London 106:439-453.

 

Downes, J.A. 1958.  Assembly and mating in the biting Nematocera.  Proceedings of the Tenth

International Congress of Entomology, Montreal 2:425-434.

 

Downes, J.A. 1958.  The genus Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Canada; an introductory

review.  Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Entomology, Montreal 3:801-808.

 

Downes, J.A. 1958.  The feeding habits of biting flies and their significance in classification.  Annual

Review of Entomology 3:249-266.

 

Downes, J.A. 1962.  What is an arctic insect?  Canadian Entomologist 94:143-162.

 

Downes, J.A. 1965.  Adaptations of insects in the arctic. Annual Review of Entomology 10:257-274.

 

Downes, J.A. and D.H. Colless. 1967.  Mouthparts of the biting and blood-sucking type in Tanyderidae and Chironomidae (Diptera).  Nature 214:1355-1356.

 

Downes, J.A. 1968.  Notes on the organs and processes of sperm-transfer in the lower Diptera.  Canadian Entomologist 100:608-617.

 

Downes, J.A. 1969.  The swarming and mating flight of Diptera. Annual Review of Entomology 14:271-298.

 

Downes, J.A. and S.M. Smith. 1969.  New or little known feeding habits in Empididae (Diptera).  Canadian Entomologist 101:404-408.

 

Downes, J.A. 1971.  The ecology of blood-sucking Diptera: an evolutionary perspective.  pp. 232-258 In A.M. Fallis (ed.) Ecology and physiology of parasites: a symposium. Toronto University Press, Toronto.

 

Downes, J.A. 1973.  Biting flies: the necessity for a new systematics.  pp. 115-123. In Biting fly control and environmental quality.  Proceedings of a symposium held at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, May 16-18, 1972.  Defence Research Board, DR 127.

 

Downes, J.A. 1976.  A new species of Brachypogon (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), the first record of the genus in Canada.  Canadian Entomologist 108:1145‑1151.

 

Downes, J.A. 1977.  Evolution of feeding habits in Ceratopogonidae.  Mosquito News 37:279-280.

 

Downes, J.A. 1977. Leptoconops - Leptoconopidae?  Mosquito News 37:277.

 

Downes, J.A. 1977.  Distribution and differentiation in the subgenus Monoculicoides.  Mosquito News 37:279.

 

Downes, J.A. 1977.  Evolution of feeding habits in Ceratopogonidae.  Mosquito News 37:279-280.

 

Downes, J.A. 1978.  Feeding and mating in the insectivorous Ceratopogoninae (Diptera).  Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 104. 62 pp.

 

Downes, J.A. 1978.  The Culicoides variipennis complex: a necessary re-alignment of nomenclature (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae).  Canadian Entomologist 110:63-69.

 

Downes, J.A. and W.W. Wirth. 1981.  28. Ceratopogonidae. pp. 393‑421 in Manual of Nearctic Diptera. Volume 1. Agriculture Canada Monograph 27. 674 pp.

 

Downes, J.A. 1983.  Two weeks on Vancouver Island, in search of biting midges (Ceratopogonidae).  Boreus, Newsletter of the Entomological Society of British Columbia 3(2):3-6.

Downes, J.A. 1988.  The post‑glacial colonization of the north Atlantic islands.  Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 144:55‑92.

 

Downes, J.A. and D.H. Kavanaugh, eds.. 1988.  Origins of the North American insect fauna.  Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 144, iii + 168 pp.

 

De Meillon, B. and J.A. Downes. 1986.  Subsaharan Ceratopogonidae (Diptera). X. Report on species collected in the Drakensberg, South Africa.  Canadian Entomologist 118:141‑18.




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