The Muscidae are a highly diverse family including some large and noticeable species, such as Mesembrina meridiana and Phaonia valida, the well-known Musca domestica, and some confusion species with other calypterate families, like the false greenbottles in genus Neomyia.
Many people have heard of house flies and may know a few of the more prominent species.
Steven Falk, Mike Ashworth and James McGill will be tutoring the course and introducing the participants to British Muscidae, which currently comprises 293 species in 40 genera. Illustrated draft keys to genera (based on Stuart Ball’s key) and species (by James McGill) will be provided and will be the main texts for the workshop, supported by Steven’s online Flickr site which provides detailed images plus species accounts for most species.
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Muscidae are some of the most abundant flies in the British landscape and are represented in all terrestrial habitats plus a variety of wetland types including intertidal saltmarsh and mudflats. Many habitat specialists are present and as such this is an important and exciting bio-indicator group that can reflect subtle characteristics of a habitat in a way that plants and birds cannot. Muscids are perhaps most numerous in species in cooler, damper parts of Britain. Some are restricted to mountainous areas above the treeline. In such areas, where a rich alpine vegetation occurs, an impressive muscid fauna may be found, with Thricops and Phaonia predominating.
Melting snowfields attract species like Spilogona triangulifera, whilst in base-rich high pastures yellow flowers appear to be particularly attractive to rarities like Thricops aculeipes. Damp woodland is also very rich in muscids, especially in Mydaea and Phaonia. In wooded valleys in northern England and Scotland Butterbur beds are often very productive of many local species, including Phaonia zugmayeriae.
Ash woods on limestone are favoured by Phaonia villana, whilst Phaonia jaroschewskii appears to be mainly restricted to carr-woodland in peatbogs of southern and eastern England.
Saltmarsh and coastal dunes support some impressive assemblages characterised by Coenosia, Helina, Spilogona, Lispe, Villeneuvia, Limnospila and Neolimnophora species. In essence, a passion for finding muscids can take you to some truly beautiful parts of the British Isles, whether it be the top of the Cairngorms, the saltmarshes of Norfolk and Wales, or mossy woods of Wales and Scotland.
Tutor
James McGill is an ecologist currently based in south-west England. He is interested in producing identification resources to help with recording of invertebrate groups that lack up-to-date guides. He wrote a draft key to muscids while visiting the Natural History Museum in 2016 and is currently updating and expanding this.
Steven Falk is an Entomologist, Ecologist, Photographer, Author and Artist. His career path has reflected his passion for wildlife and nature conservation and now is an independent consultant, and curator of an extensive Flickr collection of British insects. He is a co-author of the forthcoming Pisces ‘A Photographic Guide to Flies of Britain and Ireland’ (due out Nov 2025) and has studied muscids for nearly 50 years adding several species to the British list and ensuring that they get good coverage in the Darwin Tree of Life genomics project (which results in a full genome sequence for a species).
Mike Ashworth is the scheme organiser for the DF Muscidae and Fanniidae Study Group having turned his attention to flies following a career in scientific computing. He has volunteered for both the Bioscan and Darwin Tree of Life genomics projects.
Opportunities to attend this course
This course is not currently available to book. Dates will follow soon.
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