News

Those who attended our recent Recorders’ and Naturalists’ Meeting will have seen Ian Draycott’s talk on the Diptera of Herefordshire, which ended with a proposal to establish a Herefordshire Invertebrate Forum.

With Herefordshire being something of an outlier county, invertebrate enthusiasts here can find it is difficult to find or connect with any network of people to share local knowledge and help advance identification skills. The success of the ‘Hidden Herefordshire’ project has shown that there is a need for this.

Most invertebrate taxa groups are studied by individuals working alone who often can be unaware that others are interested in the same area. The exception is Lepidoptera where informal groups are now well-established and are currently flourishing as a result of the drive of a few individuals, including county-level recorders for national organisations.

Some sort of ‘forum’ covering invertebrate interests could help to connect people and act as a central resource for any species news or access point for any well-summarised information about the status of various taxa groups within the county.

The attached note is intended to start a simple consultation to establish if this idea really is worthwhile and to get a feel for the extent to which people might want to participate such a forum and what the functions would be of interest. If you’re interested in the idea of a Herefordshire Invertebrate Forum, please read this document and get in touch with Ian!