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I guess this should be in general whatsits:@ but I said I would put it here so I have.

To collect legally in Thailand you need to have a government approved project. I am hoping that by being a full-time resident and by working in harmony with only a couple of local National Parks, ones that are not as well studied as Doi Inthanon, that I will be able to get such a project together. With luck this will allow me to collect in some nice habitats here in far northern Thailand.

As you all know, when dealing with bureaucracy:@ it is best to have grand sounding names etc. I will be working partly with the NHM London, they will get most of the beetles, and a group of Romanian microhymenopterists (whom some of you now know) So I will present the project with a list of associates and (where possible) their institutes. I am sure some of you would like to receive material as well.

So if you would like to be in on the submitted project add your name, institute and group below. I am sorry I will not have time to dry and pin stuff. I will most likely be restricted to Yellowpan trapping and hand netting (because of lack of funds). Also I will be sorting with a x10 hand lens only, unless I find a microscope somewhere that I can use. So separating out the smaller acalyptrata may be problematical, you know I am not much good as a dipterist really;).

I am sure promising to return info to the relevant authorities of Lam Nam Kok National Park will help, and perhaps some determined material to Chiang Mai University, so there will be a commitment to get some stuff determined fairly quickly.

I will keep people informed as things develop.:D or don't:(

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It's interesting but I should really pass on oriental tachinids, as I am spread so thinly on the neotropical already :D

Theo might like to give them a try, because they should be identifiable to genus using Crosskey and perhaps other papers. But if he passes you should really try Hiroshi Shima, as he is the local expert on the oriental tachinids. :)

EDIT: Unless I am reading it incorrectly you should change Greece to Thailand in the second paragraph ;)

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Hey Gordon,
Yes, I would be interested in identifying the Thai syrphids that you catch!
Name: Gerard Pennards
Institute: Dutch Entomological society and Nederlands Centrum Biodiversiteit (NCB- Naturalis) Leiden
Group: Syrphidae
Greetings

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Thanks Chris, but this time I'm not really worried what gets determined and what doesn't. If people are interested, and if I can get the project off the ground, then I will send stuff, but really I am only offering to collect because some people asked me to.
;)

Your reading is fine, and it is fixed. Thanks

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OK Gerard, I will include you in the proposition.

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Dr Paul L.Th. Beuk
Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht
Empidoidea

I can probably pass on the Dolichopodidae that are included in Empidoidea to Marc Pollet, but if he or someone else offers him/herself for the Dolichopodidae and you sort them out, they can be excluded from the Empidoidea.

Though many groups are of interest to me I will not vollunteer for them (yet ;)) but perhaps wait till any unsorted material is delivered. :D

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Heleomyzidae, Piophilidae , Pseudopomyzidae, if any will be taken :-)

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Libor Dvorak
Municipal Museum Marianske Lazne (Marienbad)
Hymenoptera: Vespidae

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Pyrgotidae (at black light, along w/moths and on flowers) is the main target now, as I am doing a revision of the Old World genera. I can also help with Oriental Tephritidae, incl. bamboo ones, Ulidiidae/Otitidae and Platystomatidae.

Valery A. Korneyev, DSc, PhD
Head, General and Applied Entomology Section
I.I.Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Bogdan Chmielnicki St. 15
01601 Kiev UKRAINE
http://sites.google.com/site/nosferatumyiano/

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OK - it is nice to see some people coming on board, but it is not live yet, Thailand can be even more lethargic, bureaucratically than in Greece - still you know I will do my best.:D

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Here's a vespid for you Dvorak.

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Vespidae: Polistinae: Polistes (Gyrostoma) rothneyi ssp. ??? Need to have it in hands for absolutely exact ID.
Libor

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Hi Gordon - I'm involved in another Thailand survey project too, so would be delighted with any lauxanioids (lauxaniids, chamaemyiids, celyphids), as well as odiniids, therevids and scenopinids! :)

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Thanks Libor, that will do me for a photo.

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OK Stephen, I will add your name.

The good news is that Max Barclay's contact here, Mark Isenstadt has offered a Malaise trap, tubes and the loan of a microscope as well as helping to get the permission, so this project might fly yet. Also it turns out that a Thai birding friend of mine in BKK has as his boss a woman who is responsible for giving out permissions.;) So I'm feeling mildly hopeful at the moment.

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I'd have a look at any Pipunculidae and Vermileonidae.

Dr. Christian Kehlmaier
Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden
Museum of Zoology
Dresden, Germany

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Hi Gordon

Always interested in Lonchaeidae from Thailand as I have already done quite a lot of work on them - see:
http://lonchaeidae.myspecies.info/lonchaeidae-thailand

Iain MacGowan
Scottish Natural Heritage
Battleby, Redgorton
Perth PH1 3EW
Scotland

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Ahh Paul,
I assume this means you have finished all my Greek Empids:o and will be sending me a list soon. ;)

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I am working on it, my dear man, yet I have numerous unidentifiable species to deal with, any number of which may be new to science. In addition it appears the Greek material expands the known colour variation of some species, adding to the confusion.

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Dare I be terribly unhip and ask for the psychodids - if you can be arsed to sort them, that is

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And for me: Anthomyiidae if possible ;)
Institute: Dutch Enthomological society

Joke van Erkelens

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Muscidae
Zoological Museum, Moscow University, Bol'shaya Nikitskaya 6, Moscow 125009 Russia

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Joke if you like Anthomyiids I am sure there is plenty of my Greek material around, I will look it up if you would be willing to do some determinations. Nikita has some, his partner was interested in them, but I don't know the current state of play. The thing is I am not much good at separating the calyptrata out in alcohol and I am unlikely to have time to dry and pin stuff. So maybe you and Nikita need to work out a deal whereby I send stuff to you both and you each take out your desired family and pass the rest on. ;) Or something.

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As for everybody else, consider yourselves in as long as you understand this will be wet material, I am unlikely to have time to dry and pin stuff. Once Mark Isenstadt finishes recovering from the Dengue fever :( that has sent him to bed we will begin more serious planning.

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Muscid/Anthomyiid separation.
Don't worry, Gordon, even in North Thailand Anthomyiid is a rare group, so you can regard all as cf. Muscid ;)

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Hi Folks,
I am sorry to say that I am getting nowhere here, two different avenues of attack, through different people and different Thai bodies have produced zilch. Not yet even an agreement to meet and consider putting in an application.:(

So I am planning to leave at the end of this employment contract (end of July) and try something else, somewhere else. Quite what I don't know yet.

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I am sorry to hear this, despite this I am interested in Platypezidae. Thanks. Michal

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Dear Gordon,

First of all, sorry that I did not live up to your Kerkini expectations but the samples are still in perfect condition, to be examined in the upcoming two years or so.

About the Thailand dolichopodid specimens (if you still have confidence in me, that is), it would be good that they could be combined with those that are collected in the frame of Michael Sharkey's TIGER project, in which I have the rol of coordinator for Dolichopodidae. I mainly screen the samples for genera that interest me, pull them out for examination, and pass on the remainder to the other colleagues. Just an idea.

Hang in there.
Cheers,
Marc

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Cross your fingers everybody, or whatever you do, I finally made contact with Dr Ratna Thapa at Mae Fah Luang University, he is keen on a collaboration with the uni and seems very positive, so today I wrote, and sent,:) a letter to the president asking permission for the collaboration.