Josef Mik, also Joseph Mik (23 March, 1839 - 13 October, 1900) was a Czech entomologist mainly interested in Diptera

Diptera

Diptera , or true flies, is the order of insects possessing only a single pair of wings on the mesothorax; the metathorax bears a pair of drumstick like structures called the halteres, the remnants of the hind wings. It is a large order, containing an estimated 240,000 species, although under half...

. He described many new species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 and made contributions to knowledge of the Diptera of Central Europe.Mik was the first dipterist to clarify the chaetotaxy

Chaetotaxy

Chaetotaxy is taxonomy based on the position and size of bristles on an insect or the arrangement itself. It is especially important in Diptera in which group it was formalised by Ernst August Girschner....

 of the legs.
" On the legs I distinguish a front [chaeta]- and a hind-side ; an upper- and an under-side. When we imagine the leg stretched out horizontally and perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the body, the front-side is that which is turned towards the head, and the hind-sidethat turned towards the end of the body ; the upper- and under-side, in such a case, are self-understood."
Mik was born in Zábřeh

Zábreh

Zábřeh is a town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has around 14,500 inhabitants. The town itself is built up "behind the bank" of the Moravská Sázava river.-History:...

 , Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

. From 1871 to 1889 he was teacher at the Academic Gymnasium in Vienna. In 1889 he was given the Knight's Cross

Knight's Cross

Knight's Cross refers to a distinguishing grade or level of various orders that denotes bravery and leadership on the battlefield....

 of the Order of Franz Joseph

Order of Franz Joseph

The Imperial Austrian Franz Joseph Order was founded by the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria on December 2, 1849 on the first anniversary of his assumption of the Imperial Crown...

; he died in Vienna.

Works

• 1866 Beitrag zur Dipterenfauna des österreichischen Küstenlandes. Abh. Zool.-Bot. Ges. Wien 16:301-310.
• 1883 Dipterologische Bemerkungen I, II. Abh. Zool.-Bot. Ges. Wien 33: 181-192.
• 1886 Dipterologische Miscellen, II, III, Wien. Ent. Ztg. 5: 276-279, 317-318
• 1887 Dipterologische Miscellen. VI. Wien. Ent. Ztg. 6: 238-242.
• 1891 Ueber die Dipterengattung Pachystylum Mcq. Wien. Ent. Ztg. 10: 206-212.
• 1891 Vorläufige Notiz über Parathalassius blasigii, ein neues Dipteron aus Venedig. Wien. Ent.Ztg. 10: 216-217.
• 1894 Dipterologische Miscellen (2. Serie). IV. Wien. Ent. Ztg. 13:49-54.
• 1895 Dipterologische Miscellen (2. Series). VI. Wien. Ent. Ztg. 14:93-98.
• 1895 With Friedrich (Fritz) Wachtl Commentar zu den Arbeiten von Hartig und Ratzeburg über Raupenfliegen (Tachiniden).Auf Grund einer Revision der Hartig’schen Tachiniden-Sammlung. Wien. Ent. Ztg. 14:213-48.