News

Get ready for Bee-fly Watch 2020!

Some photos from Bee-fly Watch 2019Bee-flies were out and about on the ridiculously early date of 17 February last year!

New: larvae of soldierflies and allies

Soldierfly larvaA section on larvae and other early stages has been added to the Soldierflies and Allies Recording Scheme website. This is work in progress and will hopefully build up into a useful resource.

Bee-fly guide: revised version now available

The recording scheme guide to bee-flies in genus Bombylius has been updated to provide some more information on how to distinguish the two clear-winged summer bee-flies: Western Bee-fly Bombylius canescens, and Heath Bee-fly Bombylius minor. (The section on the two pattern-winged spring bee-flies remains unchanged.)

Cheshire Horsefly rediscovered in Cheshire

During 2018, the Tanyptera Trust's North West Invertebrates project commissioned a survey of two horseflies in north-west England: Cheshire Horsefly (Atylotus plebeius) and Broad-headed Horsefly (Hybomitra lurida). These species are known from moss and bog habitats in the Cheshire Plain, but neither had been recorded since the 20th century.

Earliest bee-fly ever

Bee-fly from 24 February, photo by Ian BeavisUpdate: after this record was reported for 24 Feb 201

Bee-fly Watch 2019 gets off to an early start

Bee-fly hovering over flower, photo by Ken GartsideAstonishingly, the first bee-fly of 2019 was seen today, 24 February - one

Identification workshop, London, 5 January 2019

We are running another workshop in the popular BENHS series: An introduction to Soldierflies and allied groups. This will be held at the Angela Marmont Centre in the Natural History Museum in London. For full details see the BENHS website.
 

New identification resources

Two new identification comparison pages have been added to the website recently:

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - blogs