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Update (22.02.2009): There have been some recent sightings of hoverflies posted on Flickr by avid insect photographer timz501.

Eristalis tenax female © Tim Ransom

This week the Spring issue of the Bulletin of the Dipterists Forum arrived in the post and contained lots of fly-based goodness. It included the newsletters for many of the (mostly) family specific study groups and recording schemes. Of these, it was the Hoverfly Newsletter which caught my interest the most because I am more familiar with the British hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) than I am with any other dipteran family.

Helophilus pendulus (female) - Photographed at the London Wetland Centre

The Dipterists Forum are currently involved in the production of provisional hoverfly atlas.

The Hoverfly Recording Scheme has been in existance since 1976 but Stuart Ball, one of the organisers of the scheme, is hoping to get long-term volunteers to monitor an area over the main hoverfly season, late April to mid-July. Having a long-term monitoring program for “constant effort sites” can provide more information than single recordings made on a site.

Currently the butterflies are the only group of insects which have well organised long-term monitoring programs in the British Isles.