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BENHS 2024 Indoor workshop programme

An Introduction to the Identification of UK Spiders - Michael Davis

Dinton Pastures - June 8 - 2024

Gain a foundation in the skills required to identify many of the common spider families

To book a place visit: benhs.org.uk

First up for the BENHS Members Day student presentation’s is Oxford Brookes CEEC Daniel Bardey Daniel Bardey on the Feather-legged Assassin Bugs of Australia.

Emily Armstrong from Oxford Brookes CEEC is our next BENHS Members Day student presenter with her talk ‘Beyond the buzz: Do honey bees need a higher dopamine fix?’

Great student presentation by Oxford Biology’s Elsa Heywood who has been doing her research on butterfly responses to global change at Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Yet another example of why museum collections are so important. BENHS Members Day 2024

Richard Gallon BAS: Spider & Harvestman recording scheme has 1.3 million records to date & keep them coming please!
Some spider species are adapting to changing habitats, whilst other species are restricted to very localised specialist habitats
srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php

Cryptachaea blattea seems to like traffic cones & like traffic cones, it’s increasing around the U.K.

Richard Gallon BAS is highlighting some spider species & their recorded sightings at BENHS’s Members Day

Spiders are coming into UK from abroad. Many species establishing around estuaries possibly due to shipping. The horticultural trade & climate change is also enabling establishment around the UK. Richard Gallon BAS at BENHS Members Day in Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Monarch butterfly - if caught up in air currents, especially in North America’s hurricane season, they can get blown off course & turn up in UK. Their larval foodplant is milkweed & not a plant grown here so unlikely to establish. Pete Eeles UK Butterflies at BENHS Mem. Day

Lobster moth - possibly the weirdest caterpillar we’ve got in the UK! In the 18th century some people thought it really was a crustacean like a lobster but able to live on the land. It wasn’t known then that it was a moth larvae.
Peter Marren on the naming of insects BENHS

“Fashionable ladies (18th century) tended to rear beautiful butterflies in their conservatories, whereas the gentlemen tended to stick pins in them.” Peter Marren on the naming of insects BENHS Members Day in Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Peter Eeles UK Butterflies talking about British & Irish Rarities.
Black-veined white butterfly now extinct & likely a victim of climate change. Mild wet winter conditions causing disease in highly susceptible overwintering caterpillars.
BENHS
ukbutterflies.co.uk/index.php

“It always helps if people publish in their notes how they find these spiders when they upload their record to help others. Share knowledge please!” Richard Gallon BAS at BENHS Members Day in Oxford University Museum of Natural History

srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php

We start the BENHS Members Day with BAS Richard Gallon talking about the spider & harvestmen
recording scheme. More records are needed & this can be challenging - in fact Richard can be seen here illustrating why some spider species might be under recorded…

BENHS some really on topic clothing being worn today at the society’s Members Day here at OUNHM

Just added photos of the female specimen of what DNA tells us is the first British record of Nomada fusca (from Gentleshaw Common, Staffs) to my Flickr site: flickr.com/photos/6307520…. It will probably peak in June (a bit later than panzeri).

A few places remain to be booked and we've had a new set of stereo microscopes installed for the new season of workshops.

Places are free and society membership is not required to attend.

Booking is essential, see below.

BENHS Indoor workshops - Weevil Identification - Mark Gurney - Angela Marmont Centre for UK Nature, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD.

December 14 - 2024, 10:30 - 16:00.

To book a place visit: benhs.org.uk/events/

Image Steven Falk

How is a housefly like a fighter jet? What might attract a mayfly to a conker? Are insects really drawn to lights? Catch the recent talk by Sam Fabian at our Annual Meeting here on Youtube youtube.com/watch?v=oTYdyL…

BENHS Indoor workshops - Hoverfly identification - Martin Harvey

BENHS Dinton Pastures - June 15 - 2024, 10:30 - 16:00.

To book a place visit: benhs.org.uk/events/