A female Physoptera (Phoridae) showing off/advertising her presence, by releasing pheromones through her abdominal glands (the yellow stripes on her abdomen). As you can see they have reduced abdominal plates (tergites) that allow these glands to expand #FlySchool2026 @dipteracourse.bsky.social

Some crane flies in the genus #Geranomyia produce a little gel nursery to develop on leaves in the tropics. There they graze on algae & other organic matter. The mass provides moisture (other spp. live in water/soil) & likely protects from predators. #Tipulidae #Limoniidae #FlySchool2026 Costa Rica

A gorgeous new family of flies for me - Xylomyidae, the Wood Soldier flies These have been poorly studied as most caught via malaise but Antoine Touret hand caught this off a wall at the @soltiscenter. 3spp described in Costa Rica but many more waiting to de determined @dipteracourse.bsky.social

@bertonemyia.bsky.social asked his seven year old nephew to give common names to flies.. Do you agree? And can you name the actual families? #FlySchool2026 @dipteracourse.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

Bloody love these flies

Matt Bertone@bertonemyia.bsky.social · 5d ago

Just a couple big-headed flies making more big-headed flies, which I appreciate so I can see more big-headed flies 😁 #Pipunculidae #FlySchool2026 Costa Rica [PS: Jim Hogue is about to wow us w/these flies & their close relatives the hover flies!] @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @dipteracourse.bsky.social

Lots of ‘whooping’ about the next lecture at #FlySchool2026 by @riccardi-p.bsky.social - genitalia preps ‘We use genitalia as its under positive selection’. @dipteracourse.bsky.social

Afternoons lecture by Brian Brown at @dipteracourse.bsky.social #FlySchool2026 starts with Hypopygial circumversion in the higher flies Instead of the males being dragged along, their genitalia has rotated to offer them some dignity 🤓🤘

In today’s @theguardian.com there is a more balanced article on the value of flies 😎 by Lucy Knight featuring Andrew Whitehouse @buglife.bsky.social and myself @nhm-london.bsky.social Lots are moaning but let’s think about the bigger picture..what is happening to cause an outbreak

@flygirlnhm.bsky.social @riccardi-p.bsky.social @dipteracourse.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social

Matt Bertone@bertonemyia.bsky.social · 7d ago

Be a dipterist. Be in Costa Rica for #FlySchool2026. See a muscoid #fly perching on a leaf. Tell student so they can collect it. Success!! Wait a minute 🤔 That's not a fly, but weevil mimicking one! This was so convincing, even rapidly moving & poking its wings out 🥰 #Curculionidae: cf. #Mnemynurus

So many great quotes from @flygirlnhm.bsky.social (of course!) in this piece on “plagues of flies” —i can’t pick one to snippet, so just go and read them all! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘It makes you feel you’ve got a really dirty house’: what’s behind the UK’s plagues of flies?

From Leicestershire to Carmarthenshire, neighbourhoods are struggling with wave after wave of houseflies. Why are they suffering while others are spared? And is there no alternative to nets and zapper...

theguardian.com

Interesting piece with excellent contributions by @flygirlnhm.bsky.social. I’d say those people in that new estate need more birds and bats and other animals that eat the flies, and to attract them it would help to plant some trees in their gardens. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘It makes you feel you’ve got a really dirty house’: what’s behind the UK’s plagues of flies?

From Leicestershire to Carmarthenshire, neighbourhoods are struggling with wave after wave of houseflies. Why are they suffering while others are spared? And is there no alternative to nets and zapper...

theguardian.com

Nothing is more amazing than a fly. And this fly #Pantophthalmidae is more amazing than many a fly. As @bertonemyia.bsky.social states, I concur - it’s the largest living fly I have seen 😎🪰 Go Costa Rica - go @dipteracourse.bsky.social #FlySchool2026

Matt Bertone@bertonemyia.bsky.social · last wk.

Spectacular catch on the 1st day of #FlySchool2026 by student Sangjin Han! This massive timber fly was flying around the lobby of the Soltis Center last night. At over 2"/5 cm this is the largest live fly I've ever seen 😳 Larvae bore in wood. Amazing! 🥰 #Pantophthalmidae: #Pantophthalmus Costa Rica

Day one of #FlySchool2026 and we are warming up with lots of amazing fauna. I think the crab spider was my fav, but membracids (bugs) are fun and the Orthoptera huge!

Drilling into the participants of #FlySchool2026 @dipteracourse.bsky.social that boots/wellies in the jungle are essential. As for the bullet ants..they come for you. It’s all giggles but if you leave your lights on, they will find you 🤓😉

And so it begins… #FlySchool2026 in Costa Rica. @dipteracourse.bsky.social tutors include @bertonemyia.bsky.social @riccardi-p.bsky.social @dsamorim.bsky.social, Giar-Ann, Jim Hogue and Greg Dahlem and myself. Heading to the jungle…

I couldn't resist, I just had to

I'm late to the party, but @andreawulf.bsky.social's masterpiece is utterly brilliant. I knew almost nothing about Humboldt, but his impact on how we see nature in the West - both ecologically and emotionally - was nothing short of immense. But more than that, the story is brilliantly told. Read it!

This is ridiculous. BBC reporting on Europes intense heat and wildfires only mentions climate change in the last sentence - and then only in the name of an organisation www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Around 12,000 evacuated in France fires as firefighter killed in Italy

A third firefighter has died in Europe while tackling ongoing wildfires across the continent.

bbc.co.uk

"Absolute madness. Kent County Councillors voted 37–31 to approve a plan to extend a quarry. It will destroy at least 41 hectares of Oaken Wood. The existing Gallagher Aggregates quarry site has already resulted in the loss of approximately 31 hectares of ancient woodland." via Protect the Wild

Delighted to find Thereva valida (Dark Northern Stiletto) at Ashberry yesterday. A rare stiletto fly, but with known population on south side of North York Moors. Thanks to @kitenet.bsky.social for confirming from photos. @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social

Take a close look at the flower heads of Ragworts and you may see a white frothy substance produced by the Ragwort Seed Fly, Botanophila seneciella

Physocephala rufipes - the Waisted Beegrabber This should be more appropriately be called the bumblebeegrabber as it’s been reared from a variety of species. It was hanging around in a beautiful meadow in West Sussex @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Might be on interest for my ecology friends here 🧪, we shown how even 40 years of observations does not rarefy completely diversity of insect groups with prevalent dark taxa (looking at you, 🪰) @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @steveormerod.bsky.social @stephenbheard.bsky.social @cschaboo.bsky.social

Nathan Jay Baker@nathanjaybaker.bsky.social · 3w ago

Insect decline usually focuses on species we can name. But "dark taxa" like true flies kept revealing new species over 37-years of sampling a German stream, while well-studied mayflies/stoneflies/caddisflies plateaued with far fewer individuals. doi.org/10.1111/icad... @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social

Mydas fly!! Not a wasp, a huge black iridescent orange-spotted monster slurping on swamp milkweed. Plant native plants…never know who’ll show up 😳

For the upcoming @dipteracourse.bsky.social we are preparing a shopping list.... I can't wait to smear rotten meat around the Costa Rican Canopy... @dipterists.bsky.social

Day 2 of @globalbirdfair.bsky.social So much fun. Art, nature, slugs, pan species listing @graemelyons.bsky.social, trying to ban robins, successfully banning Monarch Butterflies @intothewildpod.bsky.social and stories to inspire @buglife.bsky.social

@flygirlnhm.bsky.social Two new soldier flies for me today, on the same hydrangea in my stepmum’s garden. Both recorded. Thanks to you, although I didn’t recognise them. I knew they were soldier flies immediately on seeing those abdomen.

Survived day 1 at @globalbirdfair.bsky.social & it was a blast. Huge no’s of folks talking all things, some not even about birds 😎🪰🦟 Career defining performance of acting out the Leopard slug mating with @seanthevet and squirting maggots into Nick Bakers nostril…

I’ve been roped into sitting on the @buglife.bsky.social stand at @globalbirdfair.bsky.social Working on the younger attendees to foster their love of bugs #insects

So a weekend of persuading bird folks that they should move on from loving the two legged to the six legged creatures… Maybe I’ll start off with Craneflies to ease them in gently (they never have the full set) @globalbirdfair.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social