European Micropezids & Tanypezids

Countries are thirsty for summarized data and insights for policy-making but we are running short of tools (Martinez, 2023)

Recording

Recording in the UK

Contributors to the UK's Recording Schemes customarily submit records in the form of a spreadsheet.
The online system is iRecord, used when identifications are reasonably certain. Confirmation of identification from images may be obtained from sites such as Diptera.info, or the general "what's this" site, iSpot
The online keys on this site, backed up by the Descriptions here should take you some way to making an identification but unfortunately many cannot be identified from photographs alone. Regrettably that applies to the Psila genus, the ones most frequently encountered in the field.

Recording in Europe

If you wish to draw records to the attention of this European Micropezids & Tanypezids initiative then the preferred method is via iNaturalist because I am notified of each post and am able to verify them so as to raise them to ResearchGrade level as well as add to your countries checklist on this site. A simple method using Flickr is detailed in Newsletter 2
I would also be happy to accept records in spreadsheet format. Georeferenced records extracted from Museum collections would be of particular interest. I am currently investigating methods of submitting such records directly to GBIF now that this site has become endorsed by them.
The European Diptera site Diptera.info attracts contributors from all over Europe and is a good place to post information or make identification requests. By all means post short lists of records of interest there (with Lat/Long) even if you've no image to go with them.
To those who have Micropezid & Tanypezid records on Diptera.info I would ask that they please consider uploading them to iNaturalist as detailed in Newsletter 2. I'd be happy to do it for you but the image is your copyright.

Photography & georeferencing

A fairly precise location is of considerable value. Some well-disciplined sites such as Le Mondes des Insectes and Spain's Invertebrados InsectariumVirtual expect additional details such as département and habitat but the all-important geospatial coordinates are invariably omitted. To determine these coordinates, simply place a marker on your location using Google Earth and read off the Lat/Long coordinates then add them to your image posting on your chosen site. 
Personal Flickr sites and geotagging through the use of GPS devices are also valuable sources of information.

Good hunting


© Images used on this site have been made available on a variety of public galleries and personal collections or in Open Access publications. All sourcers are credited with the author's name (or tag) and linked to the original source.

Many thanks to those authors, I have sought permission from them and invariably received kind notes of approval for their use in this project. If they or others have images which would improve or augment  this collection then please do get in touch.

Though Scratchpads has a default of CC-BY, all images reposted here have been assigned the more stringent CC-BY-NC (prohibiting commercial use except by arrangement with the author)

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith