Today reached us the sad news that at the age of 87 the well-know Dutch collector Bob van Aartsen passed away on the moning of 1 July after a short illness. In addition to him being an avid collector and a leading specialist on Tephritidae, he was foremost an amiable man that will be hugely missed in the entomology community.

I have installed an alternative panel for the Latest Forum Threads. The display on the starting page is identical to the old one, but Forum Search is different and so are several of the other underlying panels. Please, try it out and report any errors or odd findings. The old Forum search can still be accessed through the general Search link.

A new article by Tony Irwin (on the dolichopodid Neurigona quadrifasciata) was added today.

I have updated the downloadable pdf version of the European Phalaocrotophora. Though usable, the quality was rather poor. The resolution has been increased and the text is searchable. I also added a follow-up publication that adds the description of Phalacrotophora beuki and some notes on the separation of males of a number of species.

I earlier requested (HERE) to take it easy on the non-Diptera posts in the forum. It does not really seem to work. If this continues I will be forced to install a script that will limit the number of posts that can be made in the non-Diptera forum within a certain period.
Update (18 June 2007: 10.20 AM UMT+2): A limiter is in place that will allow a maximum of 3 new non-Diptera threads in 24 hours and a maximum of 1 thread per three days per user.