‘A significant amount of the British Muscids like dung…’
And so we are off! It’s the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social annual Workshop - this times it’s on Muscidae (houseflies)
Course tutors are Steve Falks, James McGill & the wonderful @entmikeashworth.bsky.social
Get better soon Chris, see you next year, picture of Falky and @entmikeashworth.bsky.social at work, just for you 👍 @dipteristsforum.bsky.social #muscidae workshop 2026. Working through the fab new key, tapping into the incredible experience of the diptera big guns #diptera @flygirlnhm.bsky.social
‘I don’t know why I’m here’ @entmikeashworth.bsky.social starts his lecture on the Introduction to Muscidae’
He’s here because he’s amazing & has done a fab job of producing a genera guide to UK Muscids. Also he has a great sense of humour
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social
A cover of a new handbook for identifying flies in Britain. The Dolichopodidae family.
Excellent! It's here and available to order from RES/CABI; the eagerly anticipated volume - years in the making - British Dolichopodidae. Really looking forward to having this sat on my desk. A colossal achievement by Martin.
Can't make the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social Dipterist Day 2025 in Cambridge this Saturday 15th November - fear not! Sign up through the link in the page below and we'll send you the recordings. The wonders of Modern technology...
dipterists.org.uk/events/dipte...
Please share the love ❤️
2️⃣ International business consultancy Deloitte reports that continued inaction will cost the world $178 trillion.
💷 But accelerating Net Zero will deliver a $43 trillion benefit.
www.deloitte.com/global/en/ab...
Badenoch’s anti-science rejection of Net Zero is a shameless move to stoke culture wars.
1️⃣ The Climate Change Committee has shown that investing in Net Zero will generate UK annual savings of almost £40bn every year by 2050, delivering lasting prosperity.
Other experts agree—here are just some: 🧵
A fly with dark maroon eyes, iridescent wings held out to the sides, a coppery colored thorax, and and abdomen with grey strips alternating with yellow and black patterned bands. It is standing on a leaf.
This is a flower fly, or hover fly. You can easily see two little barbell shaped nubbins protruding from its sides where the thorax meets the abdomen. Those are halteres, organs that evolved from hindwings. The fly uses them to sense orientation and direction while flying.
Guango Lodge, Ecuador
So, #FlydayFriday seems to be a thing. Well, I have to admit that I don't actually know if my contribution is/will become a fly but it has that look and I'm hoping @geoffwilkinson.bsky.social will be able to enlighten me. Found yesterday while fossicking in wet muddy leaf litter.
Close up of the head of a shore fly, Setacera aurata, with a broad white face covered in short dark hairs.
Happy #flydayfriday from the shore fly Setacera aurata with its rather splendid white and hairy face. From the side of a canal lock gate this week in East Yorkshire. #ento #ephydridae
“The UK has more potential for temperate rainforest restoration than anywhere else in the world… UK rainforests are resilient to low & medium amounts of future warming”
But rapid climate action needed to save other temp rainforests
Ace new research by Leeds Uni: www.leeds.ac.uk/research-32/...
A male wasp standing on a leaf. He has long antennae, gold legs, a black and white body, and a black and white striped abdomen.
When I started learning macro photography I was very afraid of wasps. Learning about them taught me that there are literally thousands of species going about their day without ever bothering anyone. They're great and play a vital role in the world.
(Sphelodon phoxopteridis) Pennsylvania
Macrochis meditata
Bingo !!
First genitalia reference of the day!! Biology unknown but what a fly!!
Macrochis meditata
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social #DipteristsDay
Afternoon of the #DipteristsDay starts with Vladimir Blagoderov talking fossil flies. Over the last 10 years more larval finds have occurred which gives more hints to their biology
@dipteristsforum.bsky.social
Zoe Adams tries to unravel the mysteries that are Cecidomyiidae
At the moment very little of sequences in Bold have a name associated with them - in fact less that 0.01 of them!!
#DipteristsDay
Next up is Olga Sivell talking about Stomorhina lunata - it used to be considered a vagrant but since 2013 its numbers have been good (a shout out of thanks to all the recorders)
#DipteristsDay
The first #DipteristDay was held at the Natural History Museum, london 30 years ago.
These six phenominal dipterists were on the original list and are still going strong 🪰🪰🪰
Have you heard of entoLIVE? It’s a series of free webinars that showcases the research of invertebrate researchers. 70 webinars to date!
We’re recruiting speakers for 2025 so get in touch if you’d like to present your work.
🧪 #entomology #research #science
biologicalrecording.co.uk/entolive/
Stomoxys flies (Diptera, Muscidae) are competent vectors of multiple livestock hemopathogens www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10....
Phaonia rufiventris, East Devon woods last week. Not uncommon but a great looking fly #muscidae #houseflies #dipteraid #dipteraimaging
Flies numbers in the uk
Musca autumnalis
Mike Ashworth highlights the Muscidae and Fanniidea working group - check out the latest news letter in the Bulletin
Flies are good!
A poster entitled Identifying Booklice in Scottish Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums, by Jeanne Robinson, Joseph Jackson & Ashleigh Whiffin. It includes images of 5 species, labelled with key diagnostic characters.
It’s a booklouse! Looks like Liposcelis bostrycophilia. We made a poster on the species found in Scottish GLAM.
Polietes meridiana, a stonker of a Muscid. Radnorshire, May 2024 Dipterist's Forum Spring meeting. Still room for more sub-contracted ID work if anyone is overwhelmed with flies to determine! www.dipteraid.co.uk
Phyto discrepans female (Rhinophoridae). A woodlouse fly. Fairly nondescript and could probably be overlooked as a plain Muscid before noticing the wing venation. 23/8/2024 Topsham, Devon.
Dicyphus errans (Miridae). A predatory plant bug I always seem to find on garden Geraniums. 23/8/2024 Topsham, Devon.
Cryptocephalus pusillus (Chrysomelidae). A leaf beetle usually found on trees (many species); this one turned up on the side of the house - dispersing? 23/8/2024 Topsham, Devon.
Blaste quadrimaculata (Psocidae) I think. A barkfly usually found on walls with lichen. Said to be rare but likely very under-recorded. I found this in the bathroom. 23/8/2024 Topsham, Devon.
A few things from the garden yesterday. Names and more details in ALT texts.
#UKWildlife
#entomology
#insects
Empis femorata collected on the
Dipterists Forum spring meeting in Radnorshire from wet woodland at Llandrindod. Widespread and pretty much unmistakeable!
Great day out on Sat 17th Aug with #DevonFlyGroup incl @timworfolk.bsky.social at @rspb.bsky.social sites on the Exe estuary. Buff-tip caterpillars, gall on Thistle from Urophora cardui (Tephritidae), Speckled Bush Cricket, a young robin's pincushion on rose made by Diplolepsis rosae (Cynipidae)
Hello Bluesky people. Here's an exceptional fly face to start. The #Sciomyzidae snail-killing fly Coremacera marginata. A common fly at least in the south. #Diptera #Entomology
Not the usual look for Sciomyzidae; Tetanura pallidiventris from an East Devon mixed, damp, mossy woodland in June. Anyone needing Diptera ID services please let me know, capacity for large or small jobs. #dipteraid dipteraid.co.uk #flies #imaging #entomology