Above: Flies!
Fly id
Had an Introduction to Diptera Identification Course at the Natural History Museum today- really enjoyed it. Good bunch of people and a good bunch of flies.
This year I'm hoping to work on adding some diptera info to our Beddington Farmlands Bioblitz. Building up a detailed model of the biodiversity on site will help in planning the restoration, monitoring the effect of the conservation measures through a wide range of indicator species and also provide endless interest and stuff to discover.
Collecting and preparing the fly specimens and getting them into a family is the most I could hope to achieve (and then get someone who knows what their talking about to id the species). I might try and familarise myself with one or two families to species level.
Didn't know what to expect at a fly identification course- as Lee kindly pointed out- I was the biggest freak there.
Love what your up to at the moment. You are becoming a really rounded naturalist! Keep it up, interesting stuff
ReplyDeleteFlies are fascinating, here's an interesting link on todays Wikipedia with the naming of one and the reasons behind it.
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love the 'descriptiveness' on Latin nomenclature? I did'nt know that Electron was Greek for Amber!
Learning all the time...
Laurie -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmenelectra
Ha ha. Very fitting to name flies afte glamour models- annoying and infectious :-)
ReplyDeleteCheers Sam- more about being a better birder than an all round naturalist. Got to know what these birds depend on to manage/create environments for them. Bloody interesting too but a danger of becoming a jack of all trades so just developing a working knowledge and partnering up with other specialists who know what they're talking about.
Agreed Pete - Natural History is such an enormous field (no pun intended) that is why people specialise. Myself it was birds then i drifted into botany for about 15 years and then back to birds. With regard to insects, it's nice to get a general introduction. A book i found fascinating was the Collins guide by Michael Chinery. As a guide it can only touch on the more common examples but the introduction to each order with groups lifestyles and adaptations is fascinating and makes absorbing reading still....
ReplyDeleteLaurie -
I got that book recently- really useful.
ReplyDeleteGood to specialise in natural history but also good to understand the big picture (not sure that I've cracked either!)