The Diptera of Lesotho: a history of collecting in the Mountain Kingdom, summary of recent collecting sites and introduction to the topical collection in African Invertebrates

Abstract

The Kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa is entirely bordered by South Africa, with which it shares many geological and vegetation types, but the vast extent of alpine vegetation and high altitudes suggests that differences in insect diversity should be expected. Globally, the Diptera are one of the most diverse orders of insects, though biodiversity estimates for the order are lacking for many regions. Here, we present a summary of the limited historical Diptera collections from Lesotho, summarise our collecting expeditions in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and provide photographs and descriptions of the collecting sites. This paper is the first of a series of papers in a Topical Collection of the Diptera of Lesotho in African Invertebrates. We hope to stimulate more research on Afrotropical Diptera and to improve their conservation in Lesotho in particular.