The Society for the study of flies (Diptera)

Hi there,
I think that it is worth clarifying how to find the latest checklist and what it contains for the
benefit of other readers who are not familiar with this website.

If you look at the magenta bar across the top of this page the 5th item in white text is the word "Checklist". Click on that word and you will be taken to the page referred to in the web address given above.

About 12 lines down the page there are four lines of text in red:
"Search for a taxon ........................."
"Browse through the ........................."
"Download the current (updated May 2014) version as a PDF (3747Kb)"
"Download a list of the currently accepted species (updated to June 2013 version - Zipped Excel spreadsheet, xls - 198Kb)"

The third item is a full checklist in the form of a book with 430 pages giving complete details of historic names and synonymy of each of the approx 7100 known British species of Diptera in taxonomic order. The Asilidae can be found on pages 186-189 of the book.

A more simple version of the checklist can be found under the fourth item. This is a simple Excel file with one line per species (7096 in the current version) in taxonomic order. Each line contains 5 columns (Family, Species Name, Authority (= Author & year), Distribution (GB and/or Ireland) and Status (Native, Introduced or Extinct). The Asilidae can be found in lines 2199-3027 of the spreadsheet.

When downloaded all columns of the spreadsheet are displayed in the default column width of 8.43. In order to able to see the data clearly, the option [Format][Autofit column width] should be applied  to the complete spreadsheet.

It is worth checking out the "Wiki" item on the magenta bar at the top of this page. Go there and you will find, amongst other useful material, a series of family descriptions and lists of references which can be used to identify the British Diptera species.

I hope that this is helpful,
Malcolm

Hi Mike,

You'd be amazed how many people do not look beyond the third item on the magenta bar and have no idea of the resources available on this website. Even I keep finding odd bits and pieces that I have never seen before!!!!!. People are always asking how to find information about subjects for which the answers are already available on this website.

I have been making an effort to point out to people how to find these answers for themselves and to inform them of the resources available here.

Other examples of this can be seen at:
http://www.dipteristsforum.org.uk/t3557 … ptera.html
http://www.dipteristsforum.org.uk/t3565 … amily.html

You responded very positively to the first of these yourself - so it must have been worthwhile!!!!!

Malcolm