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BULLETIN OF THE Dipterists Forum Bulletin No. 78 Autumn 2014 Affiliated to the British Entomological and Natural History Society Bulletin No. 78 Autumn 2014 ISSN 1358-5029 Editorial panel Bulletin Editor Darwyn Sumner Assistant Editor Judy Webb Dipterists Forum Officers Chairman Martin Drake Vice Chairman Stuart Ball Secretary Nathan Medd Meetings Treasurer Howard Bentley Please use the Booking Form included in Bulletins or downloaded from our Membership Sec. John Showers website Field Meetings Sec. vacancy Field Meetings (next 3 meetings only) Indoor Meetings Sec. Duncan Sivell Roger Morris 7 Vine Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1QE Publicity Officer Erica McAlister [email protected] Conservation Officer Rob Wolton Workshops & Indoor Meetings Organiser Duncan Sivell Ordinary Members Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD [email protected] Chris Spilling, Malcolm Smart, Vicky Burton Chris Raper, Mark Pajak, Peter Boardman Bulletin contributions Unelected Members Please refer to guide notes in this Bulletin for details of how to contribute and send your material to both of the following: Dipterists Digest Editor Peter Chandler Dipterists Bulletin Editor Darwyn Sumner Secretary 122, Link Road, Anstey, Charnwood, Leicestershire LE7 7BX. Nathan Medd (retires at AGM 2014, see DF website for details after 23 Nov) Tel. 0116 212 5075 19 Station Road, Wivenhoe, Essex CO7 9DH [email protected] [email protected] Assistant Editor Treasurer Judy Webb Howard Bentley 2 Dorchester Court, Blenheim Road, Kidlington, Oxon. OX5 2JT. 37, Biddenden Close, Bearsted, Maidstone, Kent. ME15 8JP Tel. 01865 377487 Tel. 01622 739452 [email protected] [email protected] Conservation Dipterists Digest contributions Robert Wolton Locks Park Farm, Hatherleigh, Oakhampton, Devon EX20 3LZ Dipterists Digest Editor Tel. 01837 810416 [email protected] Peter Chandler 606B Berryfield Lane, Melksham, Wilts SN12 6EL Tel. 01225-708339 Publicity [email protected] Erica McAlister - [email protected] Recording Scheme Organisers Annual Subscription 2015 See back page for full details Obtainable via subscription to Dipterists Forum, contact John Showers Annual Membership (N.B. Overseas = £25 total) Forum - £8 (includes Dipterists Bulletin) Website Subscription to Dipterists Digest - £12 Web Manager Membership Secretary Stuart Ball John Showers 255 Eastfield Road Peterborough PE1 4BH 103, Desborough Road, Rothwell, Kettering, Northamptonshire NN14 [email protected] 6JQ [email protected] Dipterists Forum Website www.dipteristsforum.org.uk/ to whom all enquiries regarding delivery of this Bulletin should be addressed Dipterists Forum Forum www.dipteristsforum.org.uk/index.php Photographs: Front cover Conops flavipes from Llyn Dinas, July 2014 Darwyn Sumner, above Stratiomys chamaeleon Darwyn Sumner. Other photographs as supplied by the authors or the editorial panel who would be pleased to receive illustrations for general purposes - many thanks for those already sent. If you want to catch the next front cover, please think about the orientation, it must be upright (portrait) BULLETIN OF THE Dipterists Forum Contents Editorial 4 Notice board 5 Recording Schemes _________________________________________________________ 5 Worldwide Biogeography ___________________________________________________ 7 Museum Collections _________________________________________________________ 9 County Recorders ___________________________________________________________ 9 Conservation 9 UK BAP & Adopt a species ___________________________________________________ 10 Techniques 13 Photography ______________________________________________________________ 13 Members 17 Membership Matters ______________________________________________________ 17 Review 18 Meetings 20 Reports ____________________________________________________________________ 20 Forthcoming _______________________________________________________________ 23 Dipterists Day 2014 ________________________________________________________ 24 Contents Field meetings 2015 _______________________________________________________ 26 Contributing Bulletin items ________________________________________________ 28 Dipterists Forum Events Autumn Field Meeting (Sherwood Forest): 11-18 October 2014 _____________ 23 Annual Meeting Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle _______________________________ 24 Saturday 22nd & Sunday 23rd November 2014 Diptera Workshops 2015 Preston Montford Field Studies Centre _____________________________________ 26 20 - 22 February 2015 Spring Field Meeting (Norfolk): 15-17 May 2015 __________________________ 26 Summer Field Meeting (Nottingham): 11 July – 18 July 2015 _______________ 26 Autumn Field Meeting (New Forest) 10-17 October 2015 ___________________ 26 Events Calendar 2014-15 27 Dipterists Forum Events The following Newsletters and other special items are incorporated into the package for the printers after com- pletion of the Bulletin. They are not to be found in any pdf version of this Bulletin and they have their own pagi- nation. Please contact the Newsletter editors for full colour pdfs, back issues may also be found on DF website. Hoverfly Newsletter #57 Empid & Dolichopodid Newsletter #19 Cranefly Newsletter #28 Soldierfly Newsletter #2 Booking form for meetings - see this or previous Bulletins & Dipter- ists Forum website Membership form Fly Sheets Desktop publishing: Darwyn Sumner Forum News Editorial Lofty records Poised as we are, at the start of the Anthropocene era, contem- Here’s what dipterists plating the mass extinctions to come, it’s interesting to speculate on the way that our efforts will be interpreted in the future. Per- do! haps some great American explorer/bio-archaeologist will come Many thanks to those who responded to my questionnaire in the along, like the reknowned Hiram Bingham who “discovered” last Bulletin (77) which was trying to find out whether there’s the Machu Picchu ruins, unearth copies of the DF Bulletin from untapped expertise that the Dipterists Forum committee should the remains of Martin Drake’s collapsed loft and come up with be calling on. I clearly asked too many questions because I had several similarly wild explanations about what a highly biodiverse rather few returns from a membership approaching 400, but I’ve environment looked like before the crash and what we were all distilled some generalisations. The result was a bit like taking a doing back then. couple of flaps of the net in herb-rich grassland – some gems and It seems Google are doing their bit to record every bit of “now” but mostly what you’d expect. If we really are going to find more data, their “Knowledge Vault” gathers web information and con- willing bunnies, we’d need to repeat the exercise with captive structs a single database “of facts about the world, and the people audiences at Dipterists Day and field meetings. and objects in it”. So one day people will be able to experience The respondents represented the complete range of expertise from an “augmented reality” through heads-up displays and choose the enthusiastic beginners still finding where their interests lie to in- species of fly they want to see flitting around. ternationally recognised experts. As might be expected, the less No hurry with those Recording Scheme records then, be nice experienced dipterists rated their identification skills most highly though if they found their way off all those scattered PCs and in the popular groups, such as hoverflies and ‘larger Brachycera’, notebooks and into the public domain, there’s only so many col- but despite the small sample it was clear that several starting out in lapsed lofts will keep their treasures intact. Diptera also take an interest in the ‘difficult’ end of the spectrum. The lesson here is that we should not focus on the popular at the Darwyn Sumner expense of occasional sorties into the less well known groups. Chairman’s Round-up Indeed, this is what the Preston Montford courses do, although Here are a few things that the committee has been mulling over we’ve not had the nerve to include sphaerocerids or chironomids or actually come to a decision on in the year since my first round- yet – two groups mentioned in this regard (the full list is Tipuloidea, up. Bibionidae, Psychodidae, Chironomidae, Empididae, Sphaeroceri- dae, Calyptrates, Muscidae). However, there does appear to be a We are hoping for an updated website that will be more user- need to re-kindle the mentor system since several of you would friendly. Before Stuart sets to work on it, he would like to know have branched out further or more quickly into ‘difficult’ groups what members want to see included. We have a few ideas but if there was help at hand. Perhaps formalising the mentor system there’s no harm in sending yours to Nathan Medd who is collat- needs some rules of engagement, for example, not just who’s will- ing ideas. ing but ensuring someone pays for postage for returning specimens. Making it easier for young and not-so-wealthy dipterists to get a In the sample, about half were happy to help with their expertise foot on the entomological ladder is one of the committee’s aims. and this fortunately was the half with the most experience, as the We have therefore bought starter packs of equipment such as nets blind leading the blind won’t help much. and pins to overcome a basic hurdle. Extracting records from journals and museum collections, and Thanks to Mark Mitchell and Colin LeBoutillier, we now have helping with