State of the Syrphs - 1-Oct-2023

Hello all. The pace of incoming hoverfly observations has slowed significantly as autumn draws in, and many of us will be spending less time observing and more time identifying. If you're wondering whether you could get started adding annotations or identifications yourself, this autumn and winter would be a great time to test the water!

You could add annotations. It's easy to tell if a hoverfly is adult or larva (no wings, head or legs!), or perhaps you might like to try determining the sex of hoverflies. If you want to try your hand at identification check out the resources page, just doing a few will get you started, feel free to tag me or another of the recent top identifiers if you want your ID checked or have another question - you can do this by putting @ in front of the username e.g. @matthewvosper. You might want to consider adopting a simple genus (learning all 280ish UK species is a rather daunting task), or using the Syrphus and Sphaerophoria guides in this project. Alternatively you could try moving observations that are currently identified only as 'family Syrphidae' to whatever lower level you feel comfortable with. So many options :) - there are handy URLs here to find the observations that still need annotations or IDs.

It might be nice at some point over the next few months to have a bit more of an 'event' where we can work together on the IDs. Let me know in the comments if you have any particular ideas. I'm planning to attack Sphaerophoria over the next few weeks, so feel free to join me!

Updates

In the last month I've added a posts about Identifying UK Syrphus and Sphaerophoria. I've also added two notes to the resources page, one to the effect that the third edition of Ball and Morris has been delayed, the other is a new book Hoverflies of Britain and North-west Europe by Dutch specialists Sander Bot and Frank de Muetter which is due out later this month. Looks quite cool.

Annotations

The proportion of observations annotated in September remains at a similar level to what it's been since the project started. It's early days, but if we can settle at this sort of level, then this is already a tremendous improvement in the quality of data we are sending to the HRS. Of course it could be higher still: Adding annotations to observations is a great way to get started contributing to iNat and the UK recording scheme. Read the annotations and sexing hoverflies articles if you think you might like to chip in!

Identifications

There haven't been any enormous movements in the NeedsID pile. It's got a little bit bigger, mainly driven by a 7.5% increase in Eristalis observations - presumably that's the big autumn generation of tenax dining on the blooming ivy.

(all data compiled on 1-Oct-23)

Posted on October 2, 2023 10:41 AM by matthewvosper