Work has just begun (May 2008)  on a two year project to increase the knowledge of the montane invertebrates of Scotland, which includes all insect orders and spiders. The work, which is mainly funded by Scottish Natural Heritage,  is being managed by staff in the National Museums of Scotland. Other partners include the National Trust for Scotland, the John Muir Trust and Butterfly Conservation Scotland. The project will run for two years and will include an  extensive sampling programme on  mountain sites owned by the partner organisations.

At this time of climatic change it is essential that we obtain up to date information on Scotland’s montane invertebrate species and establish their geographical and attitudinal distribution to act as baselines against which any further monitoring work can be set.

The project comprises of five main areas of work :

• Development of a database of Scottish Montane Invertebrates - to be compiled from specimens in museum collections, literature references and from specimens collected as part of the project
• Sampling and collection of new material - water trap / pitfall trap sampling to be undertaken on 10 mountain sites across Scotland owned by the partners
• Identification of specimens - to be organised by the National Museums of Scotland with resulting specimens added to their collections
• Studies of montane Lepidoptera - survey work undertaken by BC(S) to determine present geographic and attitudinal distribution of montane Lepidoptera concentrating on BAP species such as the Black Mountain moth - as shown in the photograph to the right.
• Analysis and outputs - database of all records of montane species will be made available - scientific papers, seminars and reports.

Hand collecting of specimens by entomologists and volunteers will also form part of the survey effort and hopefully shall provide some more up to date information on the attitudinal distribution of  species such as the montane beetle Nebria nivalis

An overview of the World fauna

Checklist of World Lonchaeidae

Key to the European genera

New species from Taiwan (2004)

New species from the Palearctic (2004)

A new species of Neosilba from Brazil- http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2005f/z00828f.pdf 

New species from central and Southern Africa (2005)

New species from Malaysia (2005)

New species from Asia  (2007)

Updated checklist for Hungary  (2007)

Lonchaeidae specimens in the National Museums of Scotland

The recently published first volume of the “Arthropod fauna of the UAE” contains a short chapter on Lonchaeidae. Two species are recorded from the  country for the first time - Lamprolonchaea metatarsata (Kertesz, 1901) which was recorded in good numbers at several localities and an two unidentified female specimens, most probably of the same species, in the genus Silba.  Little has been previously known about the Lonchaeid fauna of the Arabian peninsula and these intertesting records help fill in some of the gaps in world distribution.

MacGowan, I. 2007. Order Diptera, family Lonchaeidae. In van Harten, A. (ed.) Arthropod fauna of the UAE. 1: 640-642. Dar Al Ummah Publishing, Abu Dhabi.

The Scottish Hoverfly atlas contains approximately 50,000 species records from an amazing 89% of the 10Km grid squares in Scotland. In order to promote further recording, understanding and conservation of hoverflies in Scotland this unique dataset is now being put on-line for all to use. Go to the Scotish Hoverfly Atlas page to find out more 

Malloch Society 2007 AGM and Meeting, 8 December 2007, Perth Museum library, 1-5pm

1pm – meet in the library of Perth Museum , refreshments

Kenn Watt in the chair

1.30 – AGM: usual reports

Geoff Hancock in the chair

2.00 – Graham Rotheray : ‘Saproxylic Diptera of Northern Europe ’

2.30 – David Robertson: ‘the Finnish Saproxylic Diptera Rearing Project, results to date’

2.45 – Kenn Watt: ‘Hoverfly mapping’

3.15 – break

3.30 – Ellen Rotheray : ‘the Species Action Framework Project: restoring Blera’

4.00-5.00 – General discussion, topics include: 1) website; 2) proposed Malloch Society visit to Slovenia ; 3) celebrations for 20th anniversary; 4) Dipterists Forum July meeting in Strathspey; 5) AOB.

The latest world checklist reveals that there are now some 500 described species of Lonchaeidae, with many more out there still to be recognised!

Follow this link to see the updated list

Twenty-two species of Lonchaeidae have been newly described from Asia. follow the link to find out more ……..