Collections & Research Staff

Douglas C. Currie
Senior Curator

B.Sc. (Honours), Zoology, University of Alberta, 1978
Ph.D., Entomology, University of Alberta, 1988

Doug Currie is Senior Curator of Entomology at the ROM and Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.

Doug’s Ph.D. dissertation, Morphology and Systematics of Primitive Simuliidae, examined the early evolutionary relationships of black flies — a notorious pest of birds and mammals. He joined the ROM in 1993 after post-doctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia (1990 – 1992) and the Canadian National Collection of Insects and Arachnids in Ottawa, Ontario (1992 – 1993). He is actively engaged in teaching at the graduate- and undergraduate levels through his cross-appointment to the University of Toronto.

Doug’s research interests are focused on the systematics and comparative biology of aquatic insects, with special reference to black flies. His emphasis on aquatic organisms maintains a long-standing focus of ROM entomology, which includes the research collections of Edmund M. Walker (1918 – 1968, dragonflies and damselflies) and Glenn B. Wiggins (1952 – present, caddisflies). Doug continues to study the morphology and systematics of world black flies, but now includes cutting-edge approaches to help address long standing species-identity problems. His current research focuses on the diversity and biogeography of northern Holarctic black flies, and is based on material collected from major expeditions to Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory, Alaska and eastern Siberia. Doug’s recent book The Black Flies (Simuliidae) of North America — co-authored with Peter H. Adler and D. Monty Wood — received the Association of American Publishers Award for Best Single-Volume Reference in the Sciences in 2004.

Recent Publications

2009	Pepinelli, M., N. Hamada, and D.C. Currie. "Simulium (Inaequalium) marins, a new species of black fly (Diptera: Simuliidae) from inselbergs in Brazil." Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 104: 728-735.
2009	Adler, P.H. and D.C. Currie. "Simuliidae (black flies, bocones)." In Manual of the Central American Diptera. Volume 1, edited by B.V. Brown, A. Borkent, J.M. Cumming D.M. Wood, N.W. Woodley and M. Zumbado. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, pp 389-406.
2009	Rivera, J. and D.C. Currie. "Identification of Nearctic black flies using DNA Barcodes (Diptera: Simuliidae)." Molecular Ecology Resources, 9 (Suppl. 1): 224-236.
2008	Currie, D.C. and D.B. Hunter. "Black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae)." In Parasitic Diseases of Wild Birds, edited by C.N. Thomas and D.B. Hunter. Blackwell Publishing, pp 537-545.
2008	Currie, D.C. and P.H. Adler. "A global assessment of black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) in f reshwater." Hydrobiologia, 595: 469-475.
2006	Craig, D.A., D.C. Currie, F.F. Hunter, and M. Spironello. "A taxonomic revision of the southwestern pacific subgenus Hebridosimulium (Diptera: Simuliidae: Simulium)."  Zootaxa, 1380: 1-90
2006	Rowe, L., K.P. Westlake, and D.C. Currie. "Functional significance of elaborate secondary sexual traits and their evolution in the water strider genus Rheumatobates."  The Canadian Entomologist, 138: 568–577.
2004	Adler, P.H., D.C. Currie, and D.M. Wood. The black flies (Simuliidae) of North America. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY., Xv +941 pp. + 24 color plates.

Publications List (PDF)

Research Projects
Canadian Barcode of Life Initiative
Northern Biodiversity Assessment

Galleries
Schad Gallery of Biodiversity

ROM Images
Insects

Other Links
University of Toronto Faculty Page

Contact Information
Royal Ontario Museum
Department of Natural History
100 Queen's Park
Toronto, ON  
M5S 2C6

Tel: 416.586.5532
Fax: 416.586.5553
E-mail: dcurrie@zoo.utoronto.ca

 

 

Doug Currie. © Machiko

Standing by an inukshuk near Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, 2003.

Black fly preserved in 40-million-year-old amber. Photo credit: D.A. Craig.