Cheilosa
I am very happy they did! My interest began with birds as a small child and during my teens I branched out into other winged creatures: Lepidoptera, dragonflies, bumblebees and hoverflies. The apprenticeship provides a perfect opportunity to get to grips with hoverflies and in particular the more difficult groups.
The first six months of my apprenticeship will be mainly based at National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh under the patient tutelage of Dr Graham Rotheray whose expertise lies within hoverflies and particularly the larval stages.
My first month has involved looking at the evolutionary origins and anatomy of hoverflies and the features that separate them from other Diptera (two-winged flies). I am also learning the ‘art’ of curation and preservation of specimens. This has included ‘relaxing’ a number of rigour mortised hoverflies with an overnight spell in a jar with bleach moistened paper whose vapours soften the fly enough for its tangled legs and bent wings to be gently teased into positions free from obstructed view enabling identification features to be seen (I received a somewhat quizzical look from my girlfriend when I attempted to seal myself in the bathroom with a bottle of bleach one morning).
A pinned Cheilosa
At present I am working through several boxes of unidentified specimens from Norfolk, captured during the 1980s (many of which are older than me!), to practice using the identification keys in Falk & Stubbs Guide to British Hoverflies. It is a process that requires vast amounts of patience, but is greatly assisted with a massive museum collection of preserved specimens to hand with which to compare your specimen with. It is very satisfying when a specimen is keyed out successfully, but occasional mistakes happen, for instance, the key leads you to a species that is only recorded from a few localities in the extreme south of England!