Tour of Entomology Stores at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre

Glasgow Museums are organizing a number of specialist Natural History tours of the Glasgow Museum Store at GMRC. Amongst these is a tour of the entomology stores that will be lead by Jeanne Robinson, the curator of entomology. The tour is free but please contact Jeanne to book your place!

Specialist Natural History Tour: Little Marvels. 6^th of March 2012
Come and glimpse behind the scenes at Glasgow Museums fabulous insect collection. Like in the wild, most of our 200,000 insects are hidden away rather than on public display. Come and marvel at the worlds most diverse groups of animals. See species from around the globe, from the extinct to common and from the bizarre to the beautiful. Find out about the people who collected them and see the tools of their trade.

Time: 14:30 -15:30
Place: GMRC (Glasgow Museums Resource Centre)
200 Woodhead Road, South Nitshill Industrial Estate, G53 7NN

It is FREE to visit GMRC and tour our stores, but all visits must be booked in advance. To book contact:

Tel: 0141 276 9300GMRCbookings@glasgowlife.org.uk
See http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/collections-research/online-collections-navigator/Pages/home.aspx for an introduction to their insect collections

See http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/glasgow-museum-resource-centre/Pages/default.aspx for further details about the museum store

Beetlemania

Crystal Maw's talk last night was disgustingly brilliant. It was the stuff horror movies are made of, but we all relished every moment as we watched  tiny creatures demolishing life forms twenty times their size. These diminutive animals may have tiny brains, but they sure are clever and the way they care for their young is amazing.

Crystal encouraged us to take a look at the charity Bug Life and specifically to get involved in the Oil Beetle Survey on Islay. These creatures may turn up on Islay, having hitched a ride from a bee, so take a look and think about getting involved.

Thanks Crystal for a wonderful talk (I for one didn't have any nightmares - yet!)

Becky

http://www.buglife.org.uk/getinvolved/surveys/Oil+Beetle+Hunt/Oil+Beetle+Hunt+-+How+to+take+part

Scottish Invertebrate Species Knowledge Dossiers

Adding to 15 dossiers already published, these 47 documents provide summary information for invertebrate groups known to occur in Scotland, and including species checklists. This is the first time this information has ever been available in many cases. The new species knowledge dossiers cover a wide range of terrestrial and marine invertebrates, including earthworms, amphipods (marine & freshwaters shrimps, whale-lice, terrestrial shrimps and sandhoppers), ticks, dragonflies, butterflies, scorpionflies, alderflies, lacewings, snakeflies, bees, wasps, ants and parasitoid wasps.
The Scottish Invertebrate Species Knowledge Dossiers are a major step towards implementing the Strategy for Scottish Invertebrate Conservation.
You can read the news story here:

http://www.buglife.org.uk/News/New+Scottish+Invertebrate+Species+Checklists+Published

All 47 dossiers can be downloaded here:

http://www.buglife.org.uk/conservation/Scotland/Scottish+Species+Checklists/

And you can download the Strategy for Scottish Invertebrate Conservation here:

http://www.buglife.org.uk/Resources/Buglife/Documents/PDF/ScottishStrategy.pdf

The Scottish Invertebrate Species Knowledge Dossiers have been kindly prepared by experts, and provide basic summary information for invertebrate groups known to occur in Scotland – including Scottish species checklists.
This is the first time this information has been available in a single place – and, in many cases, the first time it has ever been available.
Ultimately, this series aims to cover all groups of invertebrates known to occur in Scotland – terrestrial, freshwater and marine. Additional Scottish Invertebrate Species Knowledge Dossiers will be published online as they are completed.
If you are able to help complete a dossier for another group, and are not already involved in preparing this, please get in touch – this is a monumental and important step for invertebrate conservation in Scotland, and your help would be greatly appreciated. After all, the first step in conserving any group of animals is knowing what is present in the first place. This allows us to target conservation action and to identify knowledge gaps. If you don’t know what you have, you can’t protect it.

http://www.buglife.org.uk/

Buglife Scotland

Buglife Scotland

Scottish Invertebrate News

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Scottish Invertebrate Conservation