<PRE>Dear Irina, </PRE><PRE><FONT size=2> This is a great idea and I am all for helping you in whatever way I can, but being based in a non-European country. Taxonomy and all inclusive bioecological focuses pertaining to the Oriental Syrphidae fauna can be covered for you. But the EDIT objectives and contents are not too clear about actual goals and methods to achieve them so a little explanation is in order. CATE is a little better. I am doing something like this for the birds of the Indian sub-continent and attracting both experts ("Exploring Conductors") and field-oriented amateurs ("Mixed Hunting Parties" !) to work together towards not only an easy to handle illustrated guide (3-4 already published recently by foreign authors) but also to generate a comprehensive database on the Ornithology of India and neighbouring areas, based on better species concepts. The parameters are biogeographical, not political. Good luck on your task and please consider me
"available." </PRE> <div> It may be necessary for you to communicate with me on a private e-mail ID (not the USDA one) since there may be problems. And, my personal collection of several thousand Indian Acalyptratae are available to you and others to research on. I will be sending Wayne Mathis my Ephydridae and other acalyptrates once I am settled and organized at Dharwar where I have just relocated. Regards,</div> <div>KUMAR </div></FONT><BR><BR><B><I>irina brake <ibrake@sel.barc.usda.gov></I></B> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">Dear syrphid workers,<BR><BR>the European Commission has funded EDIT, the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/foffice/science/science/Recherche/rub-recherche/som-recherche/fiche-rech.xsp?ARTICLE_ARTICLE_ID=8599&idx=3&nav=liste ), a network of Excellence, with the aim of better integrating taxonomy across
Europe. <BR><BR>I will be a member of the workpackage "Unifying revisionary taxonomy", the aim of which is to encourage expert taxonomic task groups to migrate taxonomic data to an internet platform (for an explanation of unitary taxonomies see http://www.cate-project.org/unitary_taxonomies.html ).<BR><BR>One of the target taxa is Lepidoptera, but I since I am a dipterist (working on acalyptrate flies) I am pushing for the addition of Diptera.<BR>Chris Thompson told me that Syrphidae are the ideal target taxon, because there are so many people actively working with Syrphidae and because there is already a lot of information available in digital format.<BR><BR>So my question to you is: Would you like to participate in EDIT? Would you like to work together on an online revision of Syrphidae?<BR><BR>We will need many experts who will populate the webpages with taxonomic, nomenclatural, biological, etc. information. We need people, who review the information. We need
"amateurs", who will tell the specialists, what they would like to see online and how the taxonomic information can be put into an "understandable" format.<BR><BR>If you would like to participate in this project, please answer to this mailing list or to me directly at ibrake@sel.barc.usda.gov <BR><BR>Best wishes, <BR>Irina Brake<BR><BR><BR><BR>Dr. Irina Brake<BR>BioSystematic Database of World Diptera (BDWD)<BR>Department of Entomology<BR>Smithsonian Institution<BR>MRC-0169 NHB<BR>PO Box 37012<BR>Washington, DC 20013-7012<BR>(202) 633-1004 voice<BR>(202) 786-9422 FAX<BR>ibrake@sel.barc.usda.gov email<BR>www.diptera.org web site<BR><BR>Milichiidae online:<BR>http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera/milichid/mi-home.html<BR>Carnidae online:<BR>http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/Diptera/carnid/ca-home.html<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Syrphidae mailing
list<BR>Syrphidae@lists.nottingham.ac.uk<BR>http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/syrphidae<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR><BR><FONT face=arial><STRONG>Dr Kumar Ghorpade</STRONG>, B.Sc.(Agri.),M.Sc.,Ph.D (Entomol.). <BR>Smithsonian Institution (U.S.A.) Postdoctoral Research Fellow (1982-1983) researching Oriental Syrphidae, Sciomyzidae and Ephydridae (Diptera). <BR><STRONG>Currently:</STRONG> Post-Graduate Teacher & Research Associate in Systematic Entomology, Department of Agricultural Entomology,University of Agricultural Sciences, Krishi Nagar, Dharwar 580 005, Karnataka (INDIA). <BR><STRONG>Post to:</STRONG> P.O. Box 221, K.C. Park Post Office, Dharwar 580 008, INDIA.</FONT><FONT face=verdana> </FONT><p> Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger.yahoo.com <br><br> Stay connected with your friends even when away from PC. Link: http://in.mobile.yahoo.com/new/messenger/