Spent a rainy yesterday catching up with the admin and sorting of voucher specimens to be returned for the project from the Botanic Garden Jardin Massart in Brussels, Belgium. The identifying of the diptera species was completed a few months back, and the paper written and published as part of a larger study (see details and link below).
Now the equally important task of ensuring that a sample of every species collected from the site is deposited in the National Collection at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium (RBINS). As well as ensuring another level of checking is actioned (mistakes do happen!) this also maintains a tangible historical record for the future, which is crucial. In this case, male and female examples of 49 species of Sphaeroceridae (Lesser Dung Flies) were extracted from 782 individual specimens and returned to the National Collection.
Time spent on the detail in the early stages of processing a project is always time well spent and means that everything is already cross-referenced, so that specimen tubes can be located easily for the individual species and sorted much more quickly. Time/cost effective!
Happily, we will be delivering the voucher specimens back to Belgium in person – a great excuse for a road trip!
Brice, D. & Beuk, P.L.Th., (2023) An annotated checklist of the Sphaeroceridae (Diptera) of the Botanic Garden Jean Massart (Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium), including five species new to Belgium. In: Grootaert, P. & Drumon, A. (Eds). Flies in the centennial Botanic Garden Jean Massart (Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium). Belgian Journal of Entomology 134: 67-81.
Garden-Jean-Massart-Brussels-Capital-Region-Belgium.pdf
Regards
Dave
07788 587 092
dave@dipteraid.co.uk
