Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society (IoMNHAS) continues its 2022-23 winter programme with a lecture focusing on some of the island’s insect species.

Saturday, December 9’s event at the Manx Museum will see entomologist Steve Crellin speaking on ‘Fascinating Flies’.

In his lecture he will give his audience a tour of the Manx true fly fauna, a subject which he has found to be an enthralling subject for study for 40 years.

Mr Crellin, who is a retired civil servant living in the north of the island, is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.

He studied Biological Sciences and graduated with a degree in Zoology from the University of Sheffield in 1983. On his return to the island, he started to develop an interest in insects, and Diptera in particular. He has had several papers on flies, beetles, wasps and bees published in various entomological journals and he has added hundreds of insects to the Isle of Man’s insect list.

Steve says: ‘The talk will take the audience through an introduction to the True Flies, Diptera, showing what features make them thus and which groups carry the name “fly” but aren’t Diptera.

‘The remainder of the talk will roughly follow an evolutionary tree, moving from the more primitive families of flies through to the more evolved families. This will take the audience from the fragile Gnats, through some of the showiest species such as Soldier Flies and Hover Flies, to some of the oddest-looking flies, for example the Bee Louse and the Bird and Bat Louse Flies.

‘The importance of male fly genitalia in identifying different species will also crop up. Fly behaviour and life-styles will be talked about too.’

As is customary with IoMNHAS lectures, Mr Crellin’s presentation will be followed by tea or coffee and biscuits.

Those attending IoMNHAS lectures are advised to arrive early to be sure of a seat, and non-IoMNHAS members will have the opportunity to give a voluntary contribution if they wish.

For further details about IoMNHAS and how to join, email [email protected], visit www.manxantiquarians.com or www.facebook.com/IsleofManNaturalHistoryandAntiquarianSociety