{{Short description|Romanian entomologist (1930–2014)}} {{Infobox person | name = Andy Z. Lehrer | native_name = אנדי לרר | native_name_lang = he | image = Andy Lehrer.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|05|16}} | birth_place = Iaşi, Romania | death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|02|06|1930|05|16}} | death_place = Israel | other_names = | occupation = Entomologist | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = ''Fragmenta Dipterologica'' }}

'''Andy Z. Lehrer''' ({{Langx|he|אנדי לרר}}; 16 May 1930 &ndash; 6 February 2014) was a Romanian entomologist. From 1996 until his death, he worked as a research associate in the laboratory of Zoology at the University of Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv, Israel. For several years, he studied flesh flies and blow flies from all over the world.

Lehrer was born in Iaşi, Romania. He died in February 2014, aged 83.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.nadsdiptera.org/ICD/Deceased.htm|title = Deceased Dipterists|publisher = International Congresses of Dipterology|work = North American Dipterists Society, Toronto|accessdate = 20 March 2014}}</ref>

For many years he self-published the journal ''Fragmenta Dipterologica,'' for which he was almost the sole contributing author.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://siris-libraries.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!782951!0#focus|title=Fragmenta dipterologica}}</ref>

==Toponymy dispute== In 2005, Lehrer reclassified the genus ''Bengalia'' into 11 new genera in 4 subfamilies<ref>Lehrer, A.Z. (2005) Bengaliidae du Monde (Insecta, Diptera). Pensoft Series Faunistica No. 50, Sofia, Moscow. ISSN 1312-0174</ref> within a newly designated family, Bengaliidae. The family designation was disputed by Rognes (2006) who noted that it was equivalent to the already established tribe Bengaliini, and that treating it as a family renders the Calliphoridae paraphyletic.<ref name="Rognes">Rognes, K. 2006. Bengalomania – A review of Andy Z. Lehrer's book on Bengalia Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 and related works (Diptera, Calliphoridae). Studia dipterologica 12: 443–471 [http://home.chello.no/~akrognes/Bengalomania.pdf]</ref> Further Rognes considered all the new genera created as junior names for ''Bengalia''.<ref name = "Rognes"/> Lehrer's work added 49 species to the already described 41 species and 18 of these new species were treated as invalid by Rognes. At present, major sources of Dipteran taxonomy do not recognize Lehrer's 10 new genera as valid, nor the 18 new species treated as invalid by Rognes (e.g.<ref>"Laoziana Lehrer" {{cite web |url=http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera//biosys.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980214185106/http://www2.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera/biosys.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 14, 1998 |title=Systema Dipterorum |accessdate=2024-03-15}}, accessed on 15 Mar. 2024</ref>).<ref>{{cite journal|author= Rognes, K |year=2011| title= Revision of the Bengalia spinifemorata species-group (Diptera, Calliphoridae)| journal=Zootaxa| volume= 2835|pages=1–29|doi=10.11646/zootaxa.2835.1.1|doi-access=free|hdl=11250/182363|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

This dispute reflects that at present, there is no consensus as to the best way to subdivide the Calliphoridae, which many authorities acknowledge is not a natural group (in this case, polyphyletic); the BioSystematic Database of World Diptera, for example, states "The Calliphoridae are marked as a polyphyletic group of convenience as at the present we are unwilling to reduce the Oestridae to a subordinated group within a monophyletic Calliphoridae nor to elevate a number of other groups (Polleniidae, Helicoboscidae, and Bengaliidae) so as to properly delimit both Calliphoridae and Oestridae."[https://web.archive.org/web/20080303090953/http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera/names/FamClass.htm] Similarly, the dispute at the generic level is that some of Lehrer's genera are paraphyletic, and, additionally, that they are based largely or exclusively upon features of the male genitalia, and it is therefore impossible to identify most female specimens to subfamily, let alone genus<ref name = "Rognes"/> (the rejection of Lehrer's subdivisions therefore being both taxonomic and a matter of practicality). The dispute at the species level centers on the fact that Lehrer did not include or examine 24 of the 41 known species in his revision, so of the 31 species he validly described that were not immediately synonymized, many could still ''potentially'' be synonyms of these 24 excluded species.<ref name = "Rognes"/>

== References == {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lehrer, Andy}} Category:1930 births Category:2014 deaths Category:Israeli entomologists Category:20th-century Israeli zoologists Category:Romanian entomologists Category:Scientists from Iași Category:Tel Aviv University people Category:Dipterists Category:Academic staff of Tel Aviv University