Long time BWARS members Matt Smith and Stuart Roberts have been named as joint-winners of the inaugural NBN Verifier’s Award 2024. Each of them have verified over 150,000 records on iRecord, having been involved since the early days of iRecord in 2012/2013. Full details can be found here.
BWARS AGM Programme 14th and 15th September 2024
Venue: Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford
Saturday 14th September 2024
Workshop 1 Nomada 11.30 – 1pm Steven Falk
Workshop 2 Priocnemis 2pm – 3.30pm Bogdan Wiśniowski
General ID help until 4.30
Sunday 15th September 2024 10.00 – 16:30
10:15 BWARS AGM (members only)
Agenda
BWARS AGM Programme 14th and 15th September 2024
Venue: Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford
Saturday 14th September 2024
Workshop 1 Nomada 11.30 – 1pm Steven Falk
Workshop 2 Priocnemis 2pm – 3.30pm Bogdan Wiśniowski
General ID help until 4.30
Sunday 15th September 2024 10.00 – 16:30
10:15 BWARS AGM (members only)
Agenda
The Chair, Richard Dawson, will take the chair to commence the business of the day.
An ant species new to Britain Tapinoma pygmaeum (Dufour 1857) has been found in Royston Herts. They seem to be thriving and have several nests with many queens in a private garden and have also been seen in two other gardens with one being 200m away. The resident, a professional gardener, recognised some very small black ants in his garden as something special about 5 years ago. It was only when he posted some photos and notes on the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants FaceBook page that interest was piqued.
A recently introduced very small black Tapinoma which unlike the two native Tapinoma has no clear notch in the clypeus. It was first noticed as an unusually small black ant around 2019 but was only identified to species in 2024.
So far only known from Royston in Herts where it is abundant in a private garden and has been seen in other gardens up to 200m away.
Also known from Spain, France, Switzerland and in a hothouse in Belgium
Only known from private gardens so far.
Workers are ~2mm long and black. They can be keyed out using the key in Seifert's Tapinoma Revision 2024.
Seifert, B., Kaufmann, B., Fraysse, L. 2024. A taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic species of the ant genus Tapinoma Mayr 1861 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 5435(1), 1-74
Nests in the soil and under stones
2024
