Milan Chvála (1936, in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

– 2021) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

who specialised in

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...

. He was best known for his work on the ''

Empidoidea The Empidoidea are a large monophyletic superfamily of true flies, the sister taxon to the Muscomorpha (Cyclorrhapha). These two groups are sometimes united in the unranked taxon Eremoneura. There are some 10,000 known species within Empidoid ...

''. He graduated at the Faculty of Science of the

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

in Prague in 1960. Since 1991 he was vice dean of the Faculty of Science of the Charles University. He was made a Fellow of the

Royal Entomological Society The Royal Entomological Society is a learned society devoted to the study of insects. It aims to disseminate information about insects and to improve communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological S ...

in 1991. His personal collections of Empidoidea are now in the Hope Entomological Collections at the University of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

Selected works

Books: * ''The horse flies of Europe (Diptera, Tabanidae)'' (with Leif Lyneborg & Josef Moucha) Copenhagen:Entomological Society of Copenhagen, 1972, 498 pages * ''The Tachydromiinae (Diptera. Empididae) of Fennoscandia and Denmark''

Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica ''Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica'' is a scientific book series of entomology, entomological identification manuals for insects (and other terrestrial arthropods) in North-West Europe, mainly Fennoscandia and Denmark. The series is used by a numb ...

3, 1975, 336 pages * ''The Empidoidea of Fennoscandia and Denmark 2'',

12, 1983, 279 pages * ''The Empidoidea (Diptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark III'',

29, 1994, 192 pages * ''The Empidoidea (Diptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark IV: Genus Hilara'',

29, 2005, 234 pages * ''The Types of Diptera (Insecta) described by Pater Gabriel Strobl'' Studia Dipterologica Supplement 17. 2008, 281 pages * ''Monograph of the genus Hilara Meigen (Diptera: Empididae) of the Mediterranean region'' Studia Dipterologica Supplement 15. 2008, 136 pages. Articles: * ''Monograph of northern and central European species of Platypalpus (Diptera, Hybotidae) with data on the occurrence in Czechoslovakia'' Acta Univ. Carolinae. Biologica 32. 1989, 209-376pp.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chvala, Milan 1936 births 2021 deaths Czech entomologists Dipterists Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society Charles University alumni Scientists from Prague Czechoslovak entomologists