252 pages of back issue diptera excitement (Dipterist Digest Vol 30 pts 1 and 2) now available to download free from our website dipterists.org.uk/news/dipteri... World class science in action! @britentsoc.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @sjthomasbotany.bsky.social

🪰 DEADLINE: Dipterists Society Travel and Research Grant applications are due by 9 February 2026 Please see the last issue of Fly Times (dipterists.org/assets/PDF/f...) or visit the Society's website for details: dipterists.org/grants_award...

Save the date! Come & meet the Dipterist Forum gang at the Staffs Invert Science Fair! Loads for kids dipterists.org.uk/events/staff... @royentsoc.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @davebriceflies.bsky.social @lancefly.bsky.social @suillia.bsky.social @nbntrust.bsky.social @britentsoc.bsky.social

Ok so I’ve seen a lot of pinned insects in my time but I’ve NEVER seen wing rests for mosquitoes The @unirdgento.bsky.social have been charged to give me data about these specimens in the @uniofreading.bsky.social collection because they are FABULOUS @royentsoc.bsky.social @entcollnet.bsky.social

You’d think as an entomologist that I’d hate pitcher plants considering their diet. But there are some mosquitoes that have learnt to live in them - feeding on/breaking down large prey thus providing plant food We had a lovely tour of @uniofreading.bsky.social greenhouse @unirdgento.bsky.social

The lovely @wetconservatrix.bsky.social showed the @unirdgento.bsky.social students the spirit collection at the Cole Museum Poor jar labels maybe not such a disaster as museum folks fear in this case as there are records! RECORDS. Just need some volunteers to transcribe & add info to specimens..

Wonderful afternoon with @unirdgento.bsky.social students, @chrisfoster.bsky.social & @wetconservatrix.bsky.social from @uniofreading.bsky.social The @nhm-london.bsky.social has joined forces with the teaching & the @royentsoc.bsky.social are providing financial support (👋@simon2ward.bsky.social )

On a bus heading to @unirdgento.bsky.social to pass over 1 of several large jars of @kneppwildlandfdn.bsky.social flies collected from the @opwallscience.bsky.social field courses Philip Bruss, the BEST student (obvs he’s working with flies) is picking Anthomyiids from 5 years of malaise samples!

Call out to anyone with UK records of Sphaeroceridae not on NBN/iRecord. Looking at getting the best distribution possible for a new key, I realise this will be a 'best possible', but more the merrier. Please share @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @respublications.bsky.social

oh yeah, it's #FlyFriday! erryone read @flygirlnhm.bsky.social's fly book to find out much more "weird fly facts" (tm)

Ahh the problem with common names The original description of this image -'Fruit flies undergo a prelude of dances prior to mating' It's a Tephritidae - a fruit fly. NOT Drosophila - what many refer to as a fruit fly (from family Drosophilidae aka Vinegar flies). Quite different (see image of cat)

Metamorphosis: How Insects Shape Our World, by myself and Adrian Washburn, translated by Su Zhimei, published by China Textile Press. 《蜕变：昆虫如何塑造我们的世界》，［英］艾丽卡·麦卡利斯特 ［英］阿德里安·沃什伯恩著，苏志梅译，中国纺织出版社出版。 文津奖得主、古生物学家苗德岁“一晚上读完”并倾情作序，直叹有趣！有料！有益！ 😎🥰🤓 @nhm-london.bsky.social How beautiful it looks!

After being rather busy and after much procrastination, today I started on the outline for a new Sphaeroceridae key; this may take a while (a couple of years maybe)! Copromyzinae first, pic of Alloborborus pallifrons @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @sjthomasbotany.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

The @nhm-london.bsky.social has a new sparkle on display, & it’s rather nice A Smokey quartz crystal #octopus that took master carver Patrick Dreher 500 hours to craft- only fitting for a creature that’s spent millions of years evolving its complex nervous system & sophisticated behaviours

So 2016…. EF4 tornado struck southern Katie, Oklahoma The noise of the hail smashing into each other was deafening. Nature unleashing its destructive force. Followed by the mammatus clouds..

What a time to be alive!! #FliesofBritainandIreland coming out SOON @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Can’t wait for this! Very excited to be one of the tutors - great team, great habitat

🦟 This week, discover the unique ornaments of Culex quinquefasciatus Say, 1823 ⬇️! Explore details and distribution on GBIF🌱: https://www.gbif.org/species/1652950 . Fascinating diversity of #mosquitoes ! Photos by @nil-rahola.bsky.social #Entomology #Biodiversity 🧪🌐

Recording an episode of #NatureTable tonight at the @nhm-london.bsky.social with @curataceae.bsky.social fungi vs flies 🤓😎 Lee brought church killers & phallic forms, I brought marine midges & maggots.. Sara Pascoe and Sue Perkins - brilliant.

Join us for our dipterists.org.uk/events/dipte... Love to see lots of beginner dipterists, so much to learn! Bursary available to help fund email [email protected] deadline extended to 31-3-26. @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @britentsoc.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social #entomology #flies

Don't let this delicate little muppet fly fool you - larvae are voracious predators of armored scale insects! A member of the "gall" midge family, it has abandoned plant feeding for a meat-based diet (like many others). #Cecidomyiidae: #Dentifibula viburni Host = white prunicola scale; #Diaspididae

Just in time for the holidays, a little gift: FLY TIMES Issue 75 (Fall 2025)! 🪰 📰 🎁 Check it out for all the latest Diptera/fly news. **Don't forget to check out the call for grant applications through the society too!** dipterists.org/assets/PDF/f...

First for me - walking through the galleries with a Demijohn and a model of a Piophilidae Today we deinstall Creepy Crawlies and models/specimens are off to quarantine

Things i didn’t know excited - the Ouse Viaduct! A glorious structure that I must have travelled on/over many many times without realising it!!

Nature - fun, odd, amazing, beautiful and totally this planet. 2025 - what a year, what a rollercoaster, some tears, some hope Please let us look after our world in 2026, it’s the only one that I live on and I happen to like it..

Learn more about #diptera Funding available for Summer field meeting 2026 #fieldcraft #entomology #pollinators #foodwebs #detritivores Application deadline is 5th Jan. Email [email protected] @britentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @flygirlnhm.bsky.social

Ok. Christmas and birthday - survived!! Here are some longhorns and lichen from @kneppwildlandfdn.bsky.social and the neighbourhood to get you through the festive shenanigans

Day 24 of #InsectAdvent and the flying reindeer have arrived! Oh no they haven’t… It’s a Ricardia sp (Richardiidae) that I collected from Honduran Cloud Forest, one of the many species of antlered flies. @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 23 of #InsectAdvent As the angels spread their wings, so do the flies. Rhamphomyia marginata (Empididae) are found across Europe & unusually for animals, it is the females that form the flirty swarms. Maybe not such angelic behaviour 😉 @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 21 of #InsectAdvent Christmas is a time of over-eating. But we're not the biggest feasters. Hermetia illucens (Black-Soldier fly) larvae are capable of eating up to 2x its own body mass in food per day - the best bio recyclers consuming our waste @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 20 of #InsectAdvent Nearly there, eyes on the prize of Christmas Day. Talking of eyes, some of the best eyed creatures are stalk-eyed flies including Plagoiocephalus latifrons (image @bertonemyia.bsky.social) we saw in Costa Rica @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 19 of #InsectAdvent Santa has a sac full of presents, so does Villa cingulata but hers is full of sand. Her sac is at the end of her abdomen & here she is twerking to get the sand to coat her eggs (on exit) to prevent desiccation - cool mum 😎 @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Message for @cosmicshambles.com , @robinince.bsky.social , @flygirlnhm.bsky.social and all those on the bill last night at #NineLessonsAndCarolsForCuriousPeople. My wife said “I think that was probably the best night out I’ve ever had!” Music, comedy, science, art, books… oh and that last song ❤️

Day 18 of #InsectAdvent - LET IT SNOW Chionea (Limoniidae) are a genus of wingless craneflies commonly called Snow flies (not found in UK but 'strongly suspected' that they are here...). Adults can be seen scuttling across the snow in the winter @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

These are so much fun to do. In the Greenroom we have a screen to enable us performers to enjoy each others acts. Last night was full of chaos, joy and the phrase a 'titillated human greenhouse' .... Science, comedy and music @cosmicshambles.com @robinince.bsky.social

Just a few pics from night one of #NineLessons last night with Dr Julia Shaw, @robinince.bsky.social, Toussaint Douglass and @flygirlnhm.bsky.social. We're back tonight! Single figure tickets left from cosmicshambles.com/ninelessons

Day 17 of #InsectAdvent.. Big day is almost upon us. Have you hung your baubles yet? What about this specimen belonging to the most bauble of flies Celyphidae (beetle flies or beetle-backed flies). Mostly metallic with their enlarged scutellum grown over their abdomen @royentsoc.bsky.social

Day 16 #InsectAdvent The Nativity story is set in a stables in Bethlehem where the People were surrounded by animals, not all of them welcome. The stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans (Muscidae) gives the gift of a painful 'bite' to all attending mammals @dipterists.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social

Nine Lessons starts tomorrow in London! On stage will be @robinince.bsky.social, Stewart Lee, Dr Julia Shaw, @soozaphone.bsky.social, @jengupta.bsky.social, @flygirlnhm.bsky.social, @anjanakhatwa.bsky.social, @tomshakespeare.bsky.social & more! Last balcony tix www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/nin...

Day 15 #InsectAdvent And even the flies are getting festive. Sporting massive antlers akin to Moose or Reindeer, Phytalmia sp (Tephritidae) males, will use them to fight for their right.......to PARTY (with the opposite sex...) @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 14 #InsectAdvent & Christmas cards are being sent/ received Can you imagine having to write a card to this soldierfly - Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides. It has the longest name in the Animal Kingdom. Luckily the address is short.. @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

When I was 17yo I did an independent project at school in Leatherhead on #insects and their mouthparts. I didn’t like sport but was left with the keys to the biology lab, prep room and a large Zeiss photomicroscope. I would spend hours working on specimens and then wet-printing the photographs.

Day 13 #InsectAdvent & have you decorated the tree yet? What about this tree? This in fact the hairy whorls of a male Chaoborid or Phantom midge’s antennae. Packed full of sensors, this ‘tree’ is more than a mere decoration @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 12!!! Of #InsectAdvent

Day 11 of #InsectAdvent - its Saturday night so XMAS PARTY (maybe romance..) Lets put on some perfume. This female Megaselia (Phoridae) releases from her dorsal abdominal glands, a fragrance so strong the males just have to immerse themselves in it @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 11 of #InsectAdvent & one of my favs Cephenemyia trompe aka The reindeer nose botfly If you are a reindeer & this is your view be prepared to have eggs squirted into your nostrils! Mothers track hosts over long distances before firing her eggs @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Wow... and I thought male Hairy-footed Flower-bees had it all sown up in the feathery-leg department... Magnificent!

Ladies if he doesn’t show up in feathered boots he’s just not putting in the effort for you.

Day 10 of #InsectAdvent & the Christmas flirting has ramped up This male Robberfly, Pegesimallus teratodes, has striking, feather-like scales on its hind legs, likely used for female attraction during courtship. (& cleaning the dance floor) @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 10 of #InsectAdvent & we are wrapping the presents What about this bling covering - The genus Formosia (Tachinidae) have some of the most striking bodies. Its not for showing off but to hide in the mottled forest light (hiding as we do under a tree) their 'presence' @royentsoc.bsky.social