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BULLETIN OF THE Dipterists Forum Bulletin No. 68 Autumn 2009 Affiliated to the British Entomological and Natural History Society Bulletin No. 68 Autumn 2009 ISSN 1358-5029 Editorial panel Bulletin Editor Darwyn Sumner Assistant Editor Judy Webb Dipterists Forum Officers Chairman Stuart Ball Vice Chairman John Ismay Secretary John Kramer Treasurer Howard Bentley Membership Sec. Mick Parker Field Meetings Sec. Roger Morris Indoor Meetings Sec. Malcolm Smart Publicity Officer Judy Webb Conservation/BAP Officer Barbara Ismay Ordinary Members Chris Spilling, Alan Stubbs, Peter Boardman, 3 vacancies Unelected Members BENHS rep. vacancy Dip. Digest Editor Peter Chandler co-opted Alan Stubbs Recording Scheme Organisers Annual Subscription Cranefly Alan Stubbs & John Kramer Obtainable via subscription to Dipterists Forum: Fungus Gnats Peter Chandler Annual Membership Hoverflies S.Ball & R.Morris Forum - £6 (includes Dipterists Bulletin) Larger Brachycera Simon Hayhow Subscription to Dipterists Digest - £9 Tephritid Laurence Clemons Contact Mr M. Parker, 9, East Wyld Road, Weymouth, Dorset, Sciomyzidae Ian McLean DT4 0RP Email: [email protected] Conopid David Clements to whom all enquiries regarding delivery of this Bulletin should be addressed Empid & Dollies Adrian Plant Anthomyiid Michael Ackland Contributions Dixidae R.H.L. Disney Culicidae Jolyon Medlock Please refer to the back pages of this Bulletin for details of how to Sepsidae Steve Crellin contribute and send your material to both of the following: Tachinid Chris Raper Bulletin Editor: Darwyn Sumner Stilt & Stalk Darwyn Sumner 122, Link Road, Anstey, Charnwood, Leicestershire LE7 7BX. Pipunculid David Gibbs 0116 212 5075 [email protected] Assistant Editor: Judy Webb 2 Dorchester Court, Blenheim Road, Kidlington, Oxon. OX5 2JT. 01865 377487 [email protected] Dipterists Forum Website Dipterists Forum Forum www.dipteristsforum.org.uk/ www.dipteristsforum.org.uk/index.php Photographs: Above Cheilosia and Xylota, front cover Oxycera. Darwyn Sumner, Cartoons opposite from Ken Merrifield, there are undoubtedly very bad puns associated with these, you’ll have to ask him. BULLETIN OF THE Dipterists Forum Contents Forum news ................................................................................. 4 Editorial .....................................................................................................4 News from the schemes.............................................................................4 Other news ................................................................................................7 Conservation & BAP News ........................................................................................... 7 Publications ............................................................................................10 Keys ............................................................................................................................ 10 Books .......................................................................................................................... 11 Dipterists Digest ........................................................................................................ 11 Forum Matters .........................................................................................12 Membership Matters .................................................................................................. 12 Income and Expenditure Account .............................................................................. 13 Correspondence .......................................................................................14 Obituary ..................................................................................................................... 15 The quest for the Saltern tangle-foot fly ................................................................... 17 Meetings .................................................................................... 19 Review .....................................................................................................19 Reports .....................................................................................................19 Picture-wing Workshop ............................................................................................. 19 Forthcoming .............................................................................................24 Events Calendar 2009-10 ........................................................................................... 24 Details of the Dipterists Forum meetings................................................................... 24 Annual General Meeting ........................................................................................... 26 Diptera Identification Workshops 2010 ..................................................................... 26 Additional Field Meetings 2010 ................................................................................. 28 And now ... ............................................................................... 29 Quantitative easing ................................................................................................... 29 How to contribute articles .......................................................................................... 29 Forum News Forum News Editorial News from the Homeopathic entomology schemes Have you ever stood in a frustrated mood in the field after an Brief notes from the scheme organisers unsuccesful hunt for something or other and just looked around thinking “the darned thing must be around here somewhere”? The recording schemes will be represented by presentations at this Homeopathic principles offer you room for some optimism under year’s Annual Meeting in London. Scheme organisers are encour- these circumstances, we can be reassured that if the particular aged to take something related to their scheme, be it specimens, beast has been in the area at some point in time then, according PowerPoint presentations or poster displays; it will probably be to homeopathic principles, the environment will have retained a one of the best live audiences you will get for some time. memory of it. http://www.dipteristsforum.org.uk Homeopaths use a sequence of 1 in 100 dilutions to prepare their elixirs, typically they do this 30 times to produce something they call “30C” dilution. This is equivalent to 1 molecule in a sphere Cranefly Recording Scheme John Kramer that is 8 light minutes across (the radius of this sphere is the Cranefly News #19 is included in this Bulletin distance from the Earth to the Sun). Adopting their terminology gives us quite a useful rule of thumb for gauging species scarcity, your chances of sweeping something randomly from an area or an Fungus gnat Recording Scheme Peter Chandler individuals’ “luck” factor in securing such a beast. So if you have Newsletter #3 is included in this Bulletin. not been fortunate enough to capture the 30C Doros conopseus or the 29C Pseudopomyza atra then homeopathy offers you another Hoverfly Recording Scheme David Iliff useful technique that will ensure that it remembers you are look- ing for it the next time you visit; you could resort to succussion Newsletter #47 included with this Bulletin in which you bang your head briskly ten times on a leather and horsehair surface. Oestridae Study Group Andrew Grayson Goldacre, B., 2008. Bad Science. Fourth Estate, London The demands of life, and the attractions of summer fieldwork, have caused me to postpone much necessary research work over re- ALERC cent months; hence, a newsletter which has been in preparation Many of you will no doubt have some degree of involvement since mid 2008 is still not ready for publication. If any readers with your Local Records Centre and will be interested to learn of this article would like to furnish me with any notes or papers that they have elected from their ranks throughout the country for inclusion in a future newsletter, they would be most welcome, a group of people to represent their profession in the form of a as would any Oestridae records. Please note that my address has professional association. This is the Association of Local Envi- now reverted to 56, Piercy End, Kirkbymoorside, York, YO62 ronmental Records Centres cic, (constituted as a Community 6DF, e-mail [email protected]. Interest Company) you can find details at www.ALERC.org.uk or get involved in debates via their online forum at http://forum. lrcs.org.uk/index.php Photogenic? I’ve received a number of encouraging comments about the use of colour photographs in this Bulletin. Regrettably we have still to resolve the issue of how best to distribute the coloured version (pdf) to members but rest assured that it is still on the agenda. Part of my job of compiling the Bulletin entails searching for suitable pictures to illustrate various items, one example being the Gasterophilus intestinalis opposite. Whilst I seem to be building up a reasonable range of such illustrations I do struggle to find reasonable ones for every eventuality. So could I appeal for the many photographers in Dipterists Forum Some progress has been made in establishing an electronic national to spend a little time organising their digital photographs this database for Oestridae, and I began the task of transferring records autumn. There are many applications which will do this job on onto ‘spreadsheets’ earlier this year. Examination of museum your computer but I’ve yet