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The 36th meeting of the German Diptera study group (AK DIPTERA) is going to take place from 31.05.2019 to 02.06.2019 in southwestern Germany, near the Danube Sinkhole near Tuttlingen (state of Baden-Württemberg). The meeting consists of a scientific symposium on Friday, a Diptera collecting field trip on Saturday, and an optional historic excursion on Sunday (castle Granegg and Beilstein cave). As the venue is located close to the FRENCH and SWISS border, we would be delighted to welcome some of our neighbouring colleagues! If you are interested to participate, send me a PM and I will send you an English version of the registration form with additional details.

Kind regards,

Christian

Finally it is done! The nature guide "The robberflies of Germany" has just been published (in German language):

https://www.humanitas-versand.de/DIE-RAUBFLIEGEN-DEUTSCHLANDS-WOLFF%2fGEBEL%2fGELLER-GRIMM

Many thanks to all of you, who contributed to this book with their faunistic data of asilid findings (pictures) from Germany.

Greetings,

Danny

The Simuliid Bulletin Number 49 (January 2018) is now available for download at the usual site:
simuliidbulletin.blogspot.co.uk. You find it by clicking on the link to go to the Simuliid Bulletin Archives.

The main article is an obituary for Dr. Roger Crosskey, but there is also an obiturary for Michael Service and a notice about the forthcoming Symposium in Birmingham.

Best wishes,

John Davies

I am sad to report that Ken Smith passed away recently. The following appreciation was written by John Ismay.

"I knew Ken Smith since 1969, when I first visited the then British Museum (Natural History) in London. At the time the Diptera Section was a large and active section, with enough staff to identify almost any fly to species. Such a facility is no longer feasible, partly due to financial cutbacks but more particularly because the identification of insect taxa has become more difficult as more species are described and the techniques used become more complicated. Ken was one of the last dipterists able to identify most flies to species.

Ken worked in the Hope Department of Entomology in the University Museum, Oxford in the early years of his career. He worked for Dr B.M. Hobby, an expert on Asilidae and they built up an impressive collection of predatory flies (mainly Asilidae and Empidiodea) and their prey. As a result, Ken became an expert in Empidoidea worldwide. Hobby was a long term editor of the Entomologist’s monthly Magazine and Ken assisted him and eventually succeeded him. Ken was ably assisted by his wife Vera. We owe all these entomologists a great debt for keeping the EMM running.

When Ken moved to the British Museum (Natural History), now the Natural History Museum he continued with his interest in Empidoidea. He worked on many families of Diptera and wrote definitive texts on the British fauna, in addition to major papers on world taxa. It is worth noting that many of these families are not easy choices. In particular he worked on Empidoidea in the southern hemisphere, a speciose and complicated group which is still being revised, and in Britain made progress with the Phoridae. This is one of the most underworked families of the Diptera and many species remain to be found even in Britain. His Royal Entomological Society key to the larvae of British Diptera is another landmark publication on a very difficult subject.

Ken was a social and outgoing person, never happier than in a pub or party with a glass in hand. He was an inspiration to younger dipterists, including the writer and was always willing to help less experienced colleagues. He had an excellent sense of humour. On one occasion he heard the Keeper, Paul Freeman, asking another section head for the number of primary type specimens (the specimens from which new species are described) held on the section. Ken had catalogued many of these on the Diptera Section, so he went to the card index with a new pack of 100 cards and quickly measured the length of the index, then counted the cards left over. When Freeman reached Diptera and asked for the number of types Ken gave him an exact figure of several thousand species, which must have been a surprise to his line manager.

He will be sorely missed in entomological circles and our sympathy goes to his two sons and the rest of the family."

Dear colleagues,

It is a sad day for all simuliidologists. I have to inform you that our well loved friend Roger Crosskey, passed away at about midday BST today 4 September. He had been in hospital for the last few months.

Roger was an exceptional taxonomist and an inspiration to us all, and a good friend to many. His knowledge of the subject was unsurpassed.

Sadly,

John Davies

Dear all,

Sadly, former member of NHM staff and entomologist Roger W. Crosskey passed away yesterday after a brief period in hospital.

He will be remembered for his outstanding contributions to dipterology, most notably on the biosystematics of Simuliidae and Tachinidae but also of other calyptrate families such as the Muscidae, Rhinophoridae and Calliphoridae. His works include several large monographs published in the Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) such as the taxonomic conspectuses of Oriental and Australasian tachinids. He was editor-in-chief of the Afrotropical Diptera Catalogue and contributed chapters to the Afrotropical, Australasian and Oriental regional catalogues, which are still widely in use by the scientific community today, and is author of the cornerstone book on simuliids, “The Natural History of Blackflies”. He was a respected biogeographer and a member of the management committee for the International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature.

Roger began his career as a medical entomologist for the Nigerian Ministry of Health (1951-1958), then worked for the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology (1959-1972) before joining the Natural History Museum. He started as head of the Hymenoptera section, then moved to Diptera as head of section before being promoted to Senior Principal Scientific Officer and spending his last years purely on research. He retired in 1990 but remained as a Scientific Associate until 2016.

He will be warmly remembered by former colleagues and friends and by all of those who are familiar with his scientific legacy.

Daniel

Dr Daniel Whitmore
Senior Curator
(Diptera & Siphonaptera)
Department of Life Sciences
Natural History Museum


Note: Roger was born in 1930 (Paul)