Dear Colleagues,

The British Simuliid Group Bulletin No. 38 (July 2012) is now available for viewing and download via the Blackfly.org site.

Go to www.blackfly.org and follow the links, or go directly from this link http://www.blackfly.org.uk/recentbulls.htm

John Davies, Editor

Dear Dipterists,

Peter Dyte sadly died at home last weekend. This was announced by John Muggleton at the BENHS Council meeting on Thursday. He was found by Richard Adams, a former colleague at the Slough Laboratory and a near neighbour, who regularly called on him. This was quite unexpected as he was not known to have anything physically wrong that might have been responsible. He was 82 earlier this year.

Please let anyone know who I have omitted from this distribution and could those at museums please inform any colleagues who might have known him.

A provisional date for the funeral is 18 July and John will let me know when the date has been confirmed.

Best wishes,

Peter Chandler

On behalf of the organizers:

The park would like to announce the 2012 BioBlitz to be held June 19-21, 2012, which will concentrate on the Order Diptera (flies). Dr. Riley Nelson from Brigham Young University will be leading the effort, with assistance from the Nevada Department of Agriculture and other entomologists.

The event will begin with a workshop about Diptera life history, collecting methods, and more. Following that, a 48-hour collection period will commence, and participants will have the chance to visit many areas of Great Basin National Park. At the same time, numerous educational programs will be held to share the importance of Diptera with park visitors and staff. At noon on June 21, everyone will reconvene for a closing lunch and to hear the preliminary results of this biodiversity discovery event.

The park is providing free camping for participants. For more BioBlitz information or a registration form, please email Gretchen Baker, or call + (1) 775-234-7331 x251.
Detailed schedule

Last month chironomid expert Ernst Josef Fittkau paased away at the age of 84. Notices were posted on the Chironomid homepage (http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/~ethanbr/chiro/) and in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (http://trauer.sueddeutsche.de/Traueranzeige/ErnstJosef-Fittkau#).

Also see the Wikepedia page on Ernst Fittkau at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Josef_Fittkau.

First announcement

The 8th International Congress of Dipterology will be held at Potsdam near Berlin, Germany on 10-15 August 2014. The organizing committee consists of Marion Kotrba, Netta Dorchin, Frank Menzel and Joachim Ziegler.

Information can be found here: http://www.icd8.info.