‘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

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: 🧵

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.

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/...

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

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 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.07.611962v1

Phaonia rufiventris, East Devon woods last week. Not uncommon but a great looking fly #muscidae #houseflies #dipteraid #dipteraimaging

Mike Ashworth highlights the Muscidae and Fanniidea working group - check out the latest news letter in the Bulletin Flies are good!

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

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

A few flies today, mostly from the garden, most very common. Details in ALT texts. #ukwildlife #ento #diptera

Lispocephala fuscitibia a special #Muscidae of New Forest valley mires. Added to the UK list by Steven Falk a few years ago. Not sure if it's been found outside the New Forest in the UK

Stopped to get some shopping on the way home this evening, and when I returned to the supermarket car-park this gorgeous bug was on the car roof - a new species for me! Pilophorus cinnamopterus, a mirid bug that is associated with Scots Pine. #ento #CarParkWildlife #UKwildlife