Welcome to the new website
Back in spring 2023, the National Agromyzidae Recording Scheme was informed by the Natural History Museum, London that due to issues with Drupal 7, all Scratchpad websites would become read-only within a few months, meaning site owners would no longer be able to edit their content. As the schemes website is the most up to date, reliable resource there is, this was a major blow.
Many options were looked into to try and keep the website going but the only viable, long-term, solution was to have a new website created from scratch. Naturally, this came at a substantial price! However, thanks to grants from the British Entomological & Natural History Society and the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, and a crowd-funding appeal, enough funds were raised to allow the creation of this new website. The scheme organiser was blown away by the level of support and is extremely grateful to everyone who made it possible.
The new website contains all the content from the previous site, with a few tweaks here and there along with a fresher, more up to date feel. One new feature is that all species have illustrations of the male genitalia (if known). This was made possible thanks to the scheme organiser been gifted the hundreds of original illustrations of Kenneth Spencer, one of the finest Agromyzidae workers in history. By having these illustrations present on the website, anyone interested in identifying adult material should not have to spend the hundreds of pounds necessary to obtain all the appropriate literature.
Other new features include:
- records can now be submitted via the schemes website using an online submission form – the scheme appreciates that not everyone may want to sign up to online recording platforms like iRecord or iNaturalist.
- regular news snippets will be posted, keeping those interested in British Agromyzidae right up to date with all the latest news and discoveries.
- a list of all vice counties which when the cursor is placed over the county name, the current number of species known from that VC is shown.
- the descriptions of adult Agromyzidae have been enhanced significantly compared to the old website.
Hopefully those who use the website will find it an invaluable resource and enjoy using it for years to come.
