Taxonomy shifts up a gear: New publishing tools to accelerate biodiversity research

On the eve of its two-years birthday, ZooKeys published its jubilee issue No 50, dedicated to semantic markup and enhancements in taxonomy. Several novelties are described in the two forum papers and demonstrated in four exemplar papers, of which two dealing with Diptera.

http://pensoftonline.net/zookeys/index.php/journal/announcement/view/18
http://pensoftonline.net/zookeys/index.php/journal/issue/view/52

Herewith, we proudly inform you that the first number of the online scientific journal Ukrainska Entomofaunistyka is published. The whole number (6,1 M) or separate articles and cover+title_contents page can be download from here: http://sites.google.com/site/ukrentfau/contents.

Contents of this issue:
1. Mirutenko V.V. A Review of the beetles of the families Malachiidae and Dasytidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) of the Ukrainian Carpathians and Transcarpathian Lowland (in Ukrainian). Pp. 1-21.
2. Verves Yu.G. & Khrokalo L.A. The new data on Calliphoridae and Rhinophoridae (Diptera) from Ukraine. Pp. 23-54.
3. Brueckner C. & Korneyev S.V. Strauzia longipennis (Diptera: Tephritidae), an important pest of sunflowers recorded for the first time in the Palaearctic Region. Pp. 55-57.

Vasily Sidorenko, Russian dipterist, Drosophiloidea taxonomist, died of 5th heart attack on June 15, 2010 in a train on his way from Vladivostok to Novosibirsk. He was going there for a cardiological surgery he badly needed since January.

Vasily was only 46. Since 1997 to 2006 he edited (and wrote many chapters) the four Diptera volumes of the Keys to Insects of Far East Russia.

He was a brilliant field collector, very easy, always smiling man. Rest in peace.

Preliminary Announcement

Dear Colleague,

We are pleased to invite you to attend the 4th International Simuliidae Symposium on October 12-15, 2010 in Antalya, Turkey. All simuliidologists, students, and interested parties are heartily welcomed to the Symposium.
First three days are for sessions and poster presentations which will be organised later according to decision of an international scientific comittee. Please note that the deadline for submitting abstracts is August 15, 2010. A natural and historical excursion, and a gala dinner will be organised for the last day.
The Symposium will be held at the Hotel Sun Zeynep in Belek. The Belek district of Antalya is within easy rich of Antalya airport nestling between forest land and the sea. We hope to see you in this delightful corner of the Mediterranean for what is sure to be an exciting and productive symposium. Details will be online soon at www.simuliid10.hacettepe.edu.tr and also at www.blackfly.org.uk.

Regards,

Selim Süalp Çağlar, PhD - head of the local organizing comittee (sualp@hacettepe.edu.tr)
Kahraman Ipekdal, PhD candidate - contact person (kipekdal@gmail.com)

Hacettepe University Department of Biology Ecological Sciences Research Laboratories, 06800, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey, Tel.: +90 312 297 64 35, Fax: +90 312 299 20 28

Andrzej passed this message on to me:

Dear colleagues,

I received today from Frank Menzel the sad news that Dr Hubert Schumann passed away on 10 April of this year, shortly before his 80th birthday. From 1962 to 1996 he was the curator of Diptera at the Zoological Museum of Berlin, and for me a valued colleague over many years.

Best regards,

Adrian Pont