Sections

Location: Horniman Museum & Gardens, 100 London Rd, Forest Hill, London, SE23 3PQ, UK.

Description: Victorian tea trader Frederick John Horniman began collecting specimens and artefacts from around the World in the 1860′s. Horniman’s key mission was to bring the world to Forest Hill and he opened part of his family house to the public so they could view the riches he had collected.

The Horniman Museum has three main collections; Anthropology, Natural History, and Musical Instruments. The Natural History collection alone contains some 250,000 specimens.

For more details see the AES events page.

Location: The Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

The theme of the event will be ‘Evolution and the insect world’.

See the AES website for more details.

I have recently received the December issue of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES) journal, The Bulletin, which has a strong orthopteroid theme this month and announced a number of affiliations. This post is a brief summary of the some of the news and articles.

The AES are now formerly affiliated with the Quekett Microscopical Club and the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The AES Bug Club Magazine will now be produced in partnership with the Royal Entomological Society.

The first article, written by Ed Baker, covering orthopteroid insects was a summary of internet resources for the orders Orthoptera, Phasmida, Mantodea and Blattodea. Each of these orders have an online taxonomic database made using Species File Software and the Phasmida and Blattodea have their own active enthusiasts’ groups, the Phasmid Study Group and the Blattodea Culture Group, which use the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy‘s Scratchpad software. Links to all of the sites mentioned in the article can be found below (and some are already in the side links).

The second article, written by Dr Peter Sutton, covered the launch and details of the Orthopteroids of the British Isles Recording Scheme and Website. I have briefly written about the recording scheme before but if you want more details on the scheme then the article is worth reading.

The third article, written by Dr Peter Sutton, documented a search in Massif Central, France for the threatened bush-cricket, Gampsocleis glabra.

The last article I found particularly interesting was ‘Notes on Collecting Fleas’ by Bob George. Fleas are one of the orders that I’ve spent little time studying, so I found this a useful and inspiring read. The article covered methods of collecting and some of the legal/ethical responsibilities when collecting.

Links:

Blattodea Species File | Blattodea Culture Group

The Cockroach Forum | Phasmid Species File | Phasmid Study Group

Phasmatodea.de | Mantodea Species File | Mantis Study Group |

Mantophasmatodea.de | Orthoptera Species File

Dermaptera Species File

Reference:
Wilkins, P. (Ed.) and Hough, M. (Ed.). The Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society, vol. 67, no. 481. December 2008.