Fungus Gnats Online

Report on the Sciaroidea workshop held during the 7^th International Congress of Dipterology, August 10, 2010, San Jose, Costa Rica and follow up discussions.

Chris Borkent

This workshop was held the morning of August 10 and was well attended, with between 20 and 40 people present for each talk. We had six speakers representing a diverse range of nationalities, who all gave interesting and engaging talks (Jostein Kjaerandsen, Sweden; Sarah Oliveira, Brazil; Olavi Kurina, Estonia; Chris Borkent, Canada; Jan Ŝevčík, Czech Republic; and Marten Grund, Germany). A wide range of topics were addressed, from regional taxonomic surveys and generic revisions, to tribal phylogeny, new methods of morphological analysis, and the use of Mycetophilidae in amber as palaeoecological indicators. Five of the six talks are available in pdf format from me.

After the workshop many of the participants had lunch together and then got together over a few bottles of wine the following night. During this time we discussed many of the issues and goals we felt were important in pursuing Mycetophilidae and Sciaroidea systematics and phylogeny. Below I have summarized the main points, as well as mentioned particular projects being undertaken and by whom.

Items needed to increase collaboration/output

- Produce email list for sharing of photos/figures of genitalia, pdfs. Also pictures of people at ICD7! (maybe done through Sciaroidea.info? If so need to email out instructions on how to join up. You can subscribe to the RSS feed on Sciaroidea.info to receive updates about new postings to the site).

- Familiarize everyone with collecting protocols and specimen handling:

- for DNA work, Peter Kerr is putting these protocols together for distribution to the group

- For a chemical method of drying specimens for pinning see Brian Brown’s article on HMDS http://www.phorid.net/phoridae/hmds.htm. This method requires no expensive equipment and allows specimens to be pinned for long term storage rather than degrading and disintegrating in alcohol

- Discussed what is needed for a comprehensive world catalogue/database online (see below the list of potential fields to include for each species record)

- Let other workers know about upcoming museum trips to help material flow from place to place.

Problems that need to be addressed

-         
Priorities:

• Figure out Dziedzickia (generic limits and revision) in a worldwide collaboration 
• Mycetophilidae world catalogue and key to genera
• Standardize descriptions, abbreviations, drawings and wing vein names

-         
Need to collaborate more with colleagues worldwide to reduce the amount of regional taxonomy (and accompanying synonymy etc.) 

Individual projects/responsibilities

-          New Neotropical key (preferably web based, image rich, matrix based) to be worked on by Dalton, Sarah and Chris

-          Vlad is obtaining Matile’s worldwide key to the Mycetophilidae (s.l.?) to translate and pass around for comments and eventual publication

-          Jostein to put together basic methods/protocol for taking pictures of Sciaroidea (including WIPs). This will include pictures of the photographic setup. (see attached papers as well)

-          Dalton has a copy of Matile’s world key to Keroplatidae (via Rafaela) for translation and comments.

News

Marc Pollet (Belgium) has recently completed collecting for a Diptera biodiversity project in Ecuador and will be sending the Mycetophilidae to Peter Kerr who will then distribute specimens to interested parties. If interested then contact Peter (mycomya@gmail.com). See flytimes issue 42 page 36 (http://www.uoguelph.ca/nadsfly/News/FlyTimes/issue42.pdf) for a report of Marc’s collecting trip to his Ecuador site and a few tantalizing pictures!

I have attached a file containing a list of potential fields to include in a super-database/catalogue of mycetophilid information. Most fields will be associated either with a list of options with check boxes or with a free form text box.  Please let me know (chris.borkent@mail.mcgill.ca) if you think of any other information fields to add.

Jostein and some collaborators have produced a paper detailing a new way of observing previously unnoticed wing colour/refraction patterns (paper included with talk pdfs)

 Fields for catalog: