Indoor Workshops
The Society headquarters is The Pelham-Clinton Building, Dinton Pastures Country Park, Davis Street, Hurst, Reading RG10 0GH, named to commemorate the late Duke of Newcastle whose generous legacy made possible the construction of a base to house the Society library and collections. The grid reference is SU 784718; when coming via the M4 take the A329(M) for Reading at junction 10, take the first slip road to Winnersh, then turn left off the B3030 driving North from Winnersh immediately after the bridge over the dual carriageway. Car parking is available at the Dinton Pastures site, the charge is £2 for over four hours parking (confirm on arrival). The BENHS building has a large green model of a Dragonfly on the front wall facing the car park. The site is about 15 minutes walk from Winnersh station, which has trains running on a half-hourly service from Reading and Waterloo. The Graham and Helen Howarth Room has meeting room accommodation for up to 36 people, while the library and collections are housed in adjacent rooms, with facilities for books, periodicals and specimens to be consulted and studied.
In order to make the library and collections available to members, there are Open Days (10.30–16.00). In addition, workshops (10.30-16.00) are organised for members and visitors, particularly to help and encourage beginners and new members taking up the study of a group of invertebrates. In 2011-2012 there will also be two workshops held in partnership with the Natural History Museum (NHM), London (on Saturday 29 October 2011 and Saturday 28 January 2012) in the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity. Specimens from the NHM collections will be available for study as well as the high quality facilities in the Centre, while the format and content will be similar to the Dinton Pastures events with booking via Ian McLean as usual. The nearest underground station for the NHM is South Kensington and the Angela Marmont Centre is in the Darwin Centre 2 building on the West side of the museum.
The concept of these workshops is to bring together one or more leading specialists, experienced in the study and recording of a particular group, to talk about and demonstrate fieldcraft, curation and identification techniques. The events are informal, with the emphasis upon practical demonstrations and with plenty of opportunities to try out the methods and ask questions. If you have problem specimens which defy identification, by all means bring them along to challenge the experts! The collections room has been arranged to facilitate presentations and the use of the video microscope for workshops. For some workshops there may be the opportunity for fieldwork within Dinton Pastures Country Park, which now has an extensive list of invertebrates recorded by members of the Society.
Excellent refreshments, including hot lunches, are available from the nearby café on the opposite side of the car park to the Pelham-Clinton Building, while there is a small kitchen with facilities to make tea or coffee on the BENHS premises.
Workshops from October 2011 to April 2012
(Unless stated otherwise, the workshops start at 10.30 and continue until 16.00.)
(Meetings marked in blue have already taken place but are included here for information.)
Saturday 15 October 2011 -An introduction to woodlice, millipedes and centipedes
Steve Gregory (Abingdon).
An introductory workshop to the identification of woodlice, millipedes and centipedes. After a presentation on the characters used to identify these groups, participants will have the chance to name their own material or specimens made available on the day from the BMIG reference collection housed at Dinton Pastures.
Saturday 29 October 2011 - An introduction to leafhoppers and allied groups: held at the Natural History Museum
Alan Stewart (Sussex) and Tristan Bantock (London)
An introductory workshop on the identification of leafhoppers, planthoppers, froghoppers and treehoppers (Auchenorrhyncha). The workshop will be mainly for newcomers to this group of insects, but more experienced people will also be welcome. We will start with a short presentation on the main diagnostic characters used to identify these insects, and other general study issues, after which participants will be able to work through their own material or specimens made available on the day and have their identifications verified. For further information on these groups see: British Bugs web site
Saturday 21 January 2012 - An introduction to leafhoppers and allied groups
Alan Stewart (Sussex) and Tristan Bantock (London)
An introductory workshop on the identification of leafhoppers, planthoppers, froghoppers and treehoppers (Auchenorrhyncha). The workshop will be mainly for newcomers to this group of insects, but more experienced people will also be welcome. We will start with a short presentation on the main diagnostic characters used to identify these insects, and other general study issues, after which participants will be able to work through their own material or specimens made available on the day and have their identifications verified. For further information on these groups see:British Bugs web site
Saturday 28 January 2012 - Nocturnal Ichneumonoidea and Ichneumoninae identification workshop: held at the Natural History Museum
Gavin Broad (NHM), Mike Fitton (NHM), Jim Brock (Ely) & Mark Shaw (Edinburgh)
Gavin Broad coordinates a National Recording Scheme for those nocturnal Ichneumonidae and Braconidae that are pale-coloured and are frequently attracted to light traps. More moth recorders are becoming interested in collecting and identifying these wasps and draft keys are available to most species within these families. Bring along your material of Ophion, Netelia and other nocturnal genera for help with identification and to contribute records to the scheme. If you have not attended previous workshops on nocturnal species then please ask Ian McLean for PDF of the identification literature when booking your place. In addition an identification clinic for the subfamily Ichneumoninae will be held; bring along your material for assistance with identification to species level with named material from the NHM collections being available for comparison. Perkins dealt with British Ichneumoninae in two parts of the RES Handbooks series (VII Part 2 (ai) published in 1959 and VII Part 2 (aii) published in 1960) neither of which are currently in print.
Saturday 4 February 2012: 10.30–16.00 - Coleopterists’ Day at Oxford
The ninth Coleopterists’ Day will be held at the University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW. Starting with talks in the morning there will also be updates on beetle recording and discussions. During the afternoon those attending can display exhibits on beetles, consult the library and collections, purchase publications from Pemberley Books or catch up with the latest beetle news. For further information about Coleoptera, including a check list and recording schemes see: The Coleopterist web site.
Saturday 11 February 2012 - Tachinidae identification workshop
Matt Smith (Winnersh) and Chris Raper (Reading).
An introduction to sampling and identifying Tachinidae, with new draft keys for a revised RES Handbook available for testing and the chance to have your specimens checked and verified by the organisers of the National Recording Scheme. For more information on Tachinidae and the recording scheme see the Tachinid Recording Scheme web site
Saturday 25 February 2012 - Staphylinidae identification workshop
Roger Booth (NHM), Peter Hodge (Lewes) & Colin Welch (Hemington)
The leaders will introduce the family for those starting Staphylinidae and also tackle identification of some of the more difficult groups. Although Rove Beetles are generally considered difficult to identify, this series of workshops has enabled many coleopterists to tackle them for the first time and with new RES Handbooks being published by Derek Lott there is growing interest in recording these beetles in Britain and Ireland. There are two National Recording Schemes for Staphylinidae (see: Recording Schemes at the Biological Records Centre web site). Further references and downloads are available from Mark Telfer's web site.
Saturday 3 March 2012: 10.30–16.00 - Hemipterists’ Day at Dinton Pastures
The first one day event for Hemipterists will be held at Dinton Pastures with a mixture of talks and informal discussions, as well as an identification clinic to help with problem specimens. Pemberley Books may be attending to make new and secondhand literature available. Please book with Ian McLean so that we know in advance how many will be coming to this meeting. For further information about recording Hemiptera, including the National Recording Schemes, see: http://www.hetnews.org.uk/
Saturday 10 March 2012 - Ground Beetle (Carabidae) identification workshops
Mark Telfer (Dunstable) and John Walters (Devon)
The third annual ground beetle workshop will help beginners and experts alike to find and identify British and Irish carabids. The programme will include a brief talk on techniques of general interest, followed by an identification session to aid beginners identify carabids to genus, as well as tuition on some of the more difficult genera. For more information about recording Ground Beetles and the Carabidae National Recording Scheme see: Mark Telfer's web site
Saturday 24 March 2012 - Sawfly identification workshop
Guy Knight (Liverpool), John Grearson (Ashton Keynes) & Andrew Halstead (Woking)
The workshop will deal with the identification of adult Sawflies for beginners, as well as helping those wishing to tackle more difficult genera. There is an active National Sawfly Recording Scheme with newsletters and a check list that can be downloaded from the RECORD web site
Saturday 31 March 2012 - Starting Aculeates
Mike Edwards (Midhurst) & Graham Collins (South Croydon)
An introduction to collecting, curating and identifying bees, wasps and ants with tuition on identifying Andrena and Nomada bees which are commonly found and can prove challenging to identify. Introductory keys to the major groups will be available as well as demonstrations of how to handle, mount and label specimens for a reference collection. Test keys for identifying these and other bees can be downloaded from the BWARS web site
Saturday Saturday 21 April 2012 - Identifying Ichneumonidae workshop
Gavin Broad (NHM), Mark Shaw (Edinburgh), Jim Brock (Ely) & Mike Fitton (NHM)
Saturday 21 April 2012 Identifying Ichneumonidae workshop – Gavin Broad (NHM), Mark Shaw (Edinburgh), Jim Brock (Ely) & Mike Fitton (NHM). A workshop to build upon previous events on collecting, rearing and identifying Ichneumonidae to subfamily. Draft keys to enable Ichneumonidae to be identified to subfamily can be downloaded from Gavin Broad's page on the NHM web site
You are invited to bring any Ichneumonidae for checking and confirmation of their identity, preferably outside of the nocturnal species and Ichneumoninae being dealt with at the NHM workshop on Saturday 28 January 2012; it will help the leaders if you can notify Ian McLean (when booking your place) of any particular subfamilies or groups that you intend to bring with you for assistance with identification. Banchinae and Diplazontinae are two subfamilies dealt with in previous events and keys are available for these subfamilies as PDF from Ian McLean when booking for this workshop.
Please contact Dr. Ian McLean, BENHS Indoor Meetings Secretary, 109 Miller Way, Brampton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE28 4TZ (E-mail: ianmclean|waitrose.com) in advance to book your place at a workshop. This is essential to reserve a stereo microscope (20 are available) and a bench space in the Library or Collections Room. When possible, please bring your own copies of identification keys and any specimens that you have in the groups concerned for identification. For some workshops handouts with identification keys are provided, while specimens to test keys and improve your identification skills may be available on the day via the leader or from the Society’s reference collections (or from the NHM collections when at the Angela Marmont Centre).
Details of future workshops will be published when available.