In memory of Pavel Laska Pavel Laska, who died last week, was one of the leading European Syrphidologists. His interest was the genus Eupeodes which continued to occupy his interests almost to his last day. I had the great fortune to meet Pavel on several occasion at the international Symposia on the Syrphidae between 2001 and 2011 and thought very highly of him. It takes quite a lot of courage to stand in front on an international audience and give a talk in a second language, especially when international travel comes late in life as it must have done for Pavel (he resided in the Czech Republic). Hopefully a fuller obituary will emerge in due course. Although we knew of his immense interest in hoverflies, very little seems to be known of his wider life. I gather he is listed as having been born in 1934, which suggests that he was 80 this year. Sadly, I have just one photo of him - a rather poor one, taken at the Symposium in Serbia in 2009. Perhaps when struggling over difficult Eupeodes we should think that this was a genus that continued to provide an intellectual challenge for Pavel for many decades.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:59:18 +0000
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