Study of Insects | Mites | Spiders
The Department Terrestrial Invertebrates consists of three collections: Acarology, Arachnology and Entomology. The research focus of the department involves projects in these three collections and the specialists working on it.
Currently the focus is:
Although there were entomology collections, especially butterflies, that predate the inception of the Department, the Entomology Department was formally established on 1 May 1975, when Gunderico Wladimiro Santos Ferreira (1921–1999), who had studied at the University of Coimbra, Portugal and was formerly employed at the University of Lourenço Marcques, Moçambique, took up the position of entomologist. Three months later, during April, he was joined by his wife, Maria Corinta Ferreira (née Melo) (1922–?2003), who had held the position of Director of the Institute for Scientific Research of Moçambique (employed 1959–1974) and Professional officer at Museu Dr Álvaro de Castro, Lourenço Marques (employed 1948–1959), prior to her appointment at the National Museum. Both received leave of absence from Bloemfontein to attend pension-related court cases in Mozambique in 1979 and never returned to the Museum… READ MORE
The Acarology Department (study of mites) came into existence as an independent department at the National Museum in 1969. Prof. R. van Pletzen, former Head of Zoology at the University of the Free State, started oribatid mite taxonomy research at the university. One of his students, Dr C.M. Engelbrecht, took up a post at the National Museum in 1969 and continued the research at the Museum. The research focus at the University changed and the collection of specimens and literature was donated to the Museum. Dr Engelbrecht collected widely throughout South Africa, augmenting the collection fourfold. Research is mainly focussed on taxonomy of Oribatida…. READ MORE

The current focus of the Arachnology division is the taxonomic research of pseudoscorpions, mostly of South Africa.
What are pseudoscorpions?
Pre-Devonian in origin, the Pseudoscorpiones are one of the oldest extant lineages and over the past 392 Ma have diverged into more than 3400 known species in 26 families. Due to their small size and lack of medical and agricultural importance, the study of the Pseudoscorpiones has been carried out by only a small group of dedicated scientists. READ MORE
Principal Museum Scientist and Head of Department - Acarology
Lizel Hugo-Coetzee PhD
lhugo@nationalmuseum.co.za

Lizel Hugo-Coetzee obtained her BSc, BSc Hons and MSc at the University of the Free State, majoring in Entomology. She obtained her PhD in Conservation Ecology at Stellenbosch University in 2006. Her thesis title was: Spatial patterns in the microarthropod community associated with Azorella selago (Apiaceae) on the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands.
She started working at the National Museum in January 2006 as a Museum Scientist. Lizel is a Research Associate of the Department of Zoology and Entomology at the University of the Free State.
Lizel has been appointed Head of Department in January 2017. Her main interest is the taxonomy of oribatid mites in South Africa, as well as some ecological aspects of oribatid mite communities.
Principal Museum Scientist - Entomology
Genevieve Theron PhD Genevieve.Theron@nasmus.co.za
Genevieve Theron obtained her BSc, BSc Hons and MSc at Stellenbosch University, majoring in Ecology and Botany. She obtained her PhD in Ecological Sciences from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2021. Her thesis examined the evolution of tangle-veined flies in southern Africa.
She has since worked at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the Agricultural Research Council in various capacities. Genevieve was appointed as a principal museum scientist in 2025 and is a NRF Y-rated scientist. She has a broad focus on Diptera and their interactions with plants, with her main interests being on the ecology and taxonomy of long-proboscid Diptera that play an important role in pollination.
Senior Museum Scientist - Entomology
Burgert Muller M.Sc. burgert.muller@nationalmuseum.co.za
B.Sc Entomology (UFS); M.Sc. Entomology(UFS)
Burgert began his entomology career in 2008 as Senior Research Technician: Natural Sciences at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg. From 2009–2016 he was employed at the same institution as Curator of Entomology, focussing his research on Afrotropical Diptera, specifically Muscidae. During his time at the museum he served as Graphics Editor for the International (and museum) journal African Invertebrates. In 2014 he took over as Managing Editor of African Invertebrates until his departure from the Museum. He still acts as subject editor for the Taxonomy discipline in the journal. He also served as co-facilitator and trainer of Georeferencing workshops for SANBI since 2012.
In 2014 Burgert obtained his Masters degree for a thesis titled: Systematics of the shoot fly subgenus Atherigona s. str. (diptera: muscidae) of South Africa.
Burgert’s research interests are systematics, taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of true flies (Diptera), with special emphasis on Muscidae and Athericidae. He is also interested in Cybertaxonomy and literature mark-up, as well as Collections data quality assessment and use, which includes georeferencing and collections information management.
Museum Scientist - Arachnology
Jan Andries Neethling MSc ja.neethling@nationalmuseum.co.za
Jan registered for B.Sc Microbiology at the University of the Free State in 2006, obtaining the degree with distinction in 2009. In 2010 he registered for third year B.Sc Entomology, obtaining distinctions in all the registered subjects and was consequently accepted into the Honours program at the Zoology and Entomology department in 2011 where he specialised in Arachnid taxonomy, but also did courses in Forensic Entomology and Plant-Insect Interactions.
At the end of 2011 he obtained his Honours (cum laude) with his thesis: “Effect of moon phases on the activity patterns of trapdoor spiders, scorpions and solifugids at the Free State National Botanical Gardens”.
He recently (2015) obtained his Master of Science (cum laude) with his thesis: “Revision of the South African Geogarypidae (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones)”, which represents the first holistic taxonomic study of a South African pseudoscorpion family, taking both molecular and morphological characters into consideration.
He is currently busy with the taxonomic revision of the South African Pseudoscorpionida fauna.
Jarmaine Magoai – Research Assistant

Jarmaine began her entomology career in 2020 here at the National Museum as an intern. She is currently serving as a Research Assistant and has taken up research projects focusing on Shoot flies. She is also a mentor for a voluntary UP Mentorship program, mentoring third year students majoring in Entomology, Genetics, Microbiology and Zoology -discussing topics specific to the Agricultural and Natural Science Field.
Jarmaine’s current interests are caring for the entomology collections and the taxonomy of Shoot flies and also supporting early career Entomologists.
Collections Manager
Portia Mailula M.Sc. portia.mailula@nasmus.co.za

Portia holds a BSc in Biological Sciences and a BSc Honours in Zoology from the University of Limpopo, as well as an MSc in Zoology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her MSc research focused on the taxonomic revision and Red List assessment of the South African millipede genus Centrobolus, strengthening her expertise in invertebrate systematics and conversation assessments.
She has gained practical experience as a research assistant and intern at the South African National Biodiversity Institute, where she was responsible for data capture/collation and research. As Collection Manager she is responsible for curation, maintenance, and development of invertebrate collections (Acarology, Arachnology, and Entomology).
Her professional interest include invertebrate taxonomy and biodiversity conservation. She aspires to become a museum curator of invertebrates, contributing to the preservation and study of South African’s invertebrate fauna.
Postdoctoral researcher: Arachnology
Ruan Booysen, PhD ruan.booysen@nasmus.co.za

Ruan Booysen obtained his B.Sc, BSc. Honours, MSc. and PhD degrees at the University of the Free State under the supervision of Prof. Charles Haddad. His doctoral thesis, completed in 2025, was entitled “Revision and molecular phylogeny of the spitting spiders (Araneae: Scytodidae) of southern Africa”.
In July 2026, he joined the National Museum's Department of Terrestrial Invertebrates as an NRF-funded postdoctoral fellow. His research focuses on the taxonomy, systematics and biodiversity of African arachnids. During his fellowship, he aims to advance knowledge of African spider diversity while undertaking a taxonomic revision of the family Oecobiidae (round-headed dwarf spiders) across the Afrotropical Region.
Research Associate - Entomology
Gimo M. Daniel PhD (Pr.Nat.Sci.) gimo.daniel@nationalmuseum.co.za

Gimo holds a BSc in Biology, MSc and PhD in Entomology. He obtained his PhD degree at the University of Pretoria in 2019, under supervision of Clarke Scholtz, Catherine Sole and Adrian Davis. Gimo started working at the National Museum in July 2019 as Principal Museum Scientist. He also is a research fellow associated with the Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences at Walter Sisulu University.
Gimo is an entomologist with interests in understanding the systematics and biogeography of dung beetles and related scarab beetles. He is cataloguing and describing the impressive biodiversity of Afrotropical dung beetles to address broader evolutionary questions, such as the role of geological uplift and climatic changes in the late Cenozoic in the diversification and possible extinction of scarab beetles in southern Africa.
Project 578: Phylogeny and biogeography of Halacaroidea-Parasitengona mites
Project 574: Survey of South Africa’s pseudoscorpion biodiversity
Project 583: Digitisation of Arachnology types in the Invertebrates Department
Project 584: Revision of Psilodera (Acroceridae, Diptera)
Project 585: Systematics of Atherigona Rondani (Diptera, Muscidae)
Project 592: The oribatid mite fauna of Zambia, Malawi and Eswatini
Project 594: Diversification and expansion of the Terrestrial Invertebrates collections
Project 595: Temporal survey of Diptera in the Kathu Bushveld
Project 597: Revision of round-headed dwarf spiders (Araneae: Oecobiidae) of the Afrotropical region
Scientific publications
EA Hugo-Coetzee
Gimo M. Daniel
Daniel, G.M., Abdalla, I.H., Scholtz, C.H., Sole, C.L. 2025. Microallopatric speciation in Southern African Dung Beetle genus Macroderes driven by Miocene aridification and ancestral flight loss. Journal of Biogeography, 2025, 0:e70086. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.70086
Taylor, P.J., Bredenhand, E., Monadjem, A., Daniel, G.M., et al., 2025, Endemic plants and animals are susceptible to extinction in an imperilled alpine hotspot in southern Africa. African Biodiversity & Conservation 55, a13. http://dx.doi.org/10.38201/ abc.v55.13
Daniel, G.M., Strümpher, W.P., Josso, J.-F. 2023. Dung beetle fauna from Mount Mabu, Mozambique. Part 1: A new species of Onthophagus Latreille, 1802, and a checklist of species belonging to d'Orbigny's group 3 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae). Zootaxa. 5258 (4): 429–442.
Daniel, G.M., Strümpher, W.P., Josso, J.-F. 2023. Dung beetle fauna of Mabu. Part 2: Pedaria ricardogutai (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), a new species, with an annotated checklist of species of Pedaria Laporte, 1832 from Mozambique. Zootaxa 5325(3), 409-418.
Genevieve L. Theron
Burgert S. Muller
Jan A. Neethling
Neethling, J.A. & Neethling, C. 2023. A systematic revision of the South African Gymnobisiidae (Pseudoscorpiones: Neobisioidea). Zootaxa, 5256(6), 501-543.
Jarmaine Magoai
Precious Tshililo
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