About us

The UK Tachinid Recording Scheme is a non profit-making, volunteer-run organisation, founded in 2000 by Chris Raper & Matt Smith. Primarily we receive records and coordinate the recording effort for the Diptera family Tachinidae but we also provide encouragement and support for anyone who wants to study tachinids, through this website and via regular tachinid identification workshops, hosted by the BENHS.

The recording scheme accepts any records of Tachinidae seen in the British Isles – that is: Great Britain & Northern Ireland, Ireland & the Channel Isles.

As a minimum a record must include:

• Species name
• Date of sighting
• Location name
• Ordnance Survey map reference (or a post-code at a pinch)
• Recorder’s name

We can take individual records by email and if you have photos then we can comment on them but often it is impossible to give identifications by photos alone. Alternatively we can take Excel spreadsheets if you have lots of records. They don’t have to be in any particular layout but they should contain the basic information.

If you have any specimens that you’d like checked then you are very welcome to post them to us – just contact me first for the address. Normally we ask to retain material sent to us for our own reference collections but if you’d like them back then this can be arranged too. We reserve the right to charge for bulk identification of large batches of specimens but our rates are very reasonable.

We can report back to you with any information on how rare the species is and what its ecological requirements might be (hosts & habitats etc.).

Permission

Modern recording schemes store their data on computers and so (unfortunately) have to be very careful not to fall foul of the Data Protection Act. For this reason we ask that everyone who submits records to us acknowledge that by sending us records they are granting us permission to store their data on a computer and pass on their records to other recording schemes. The acceptance wording will probably go something like this:

IMPORTANT: By submitting information to the scheme I agree that it may be collated and disseminated manually or electronically, including the Internet, for environmental decision-making, education, research and other public benefit uses.

Names and contact details of data suppliers will be used for administration and verification purposes only. Your contact details will not be passed to other parties without your consent, whilst your name will form part of the record that is collated and disseminated.