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Programme of Events
Programme Secretary:
Ron Boyce, 447c Wokingham Road, Earley, Reading, Berkshire RG6 7EL
Email:
IMPORTANT: Please remember to inform the leader if you are attending a field meeting. If you are held up in traffic or your public transport is delayed, it may be possible to ring the Programme Secretary on 0794 109 4395 on the day of the meeting for information on the location of the field site being surveyed.
Click on the link text for more detail of the particular meeting.
Key to Meetings
NHM = Natural History Museum, London, indoor meeting
FIELD = Field Meeting at outdoor location
WKSHP = Workshop on molluscan topic
YCS = Yorkshire Conch. Soc. Events
MSL = Malacological Society of London
NEW MEETINGS ARRANGEMENTS FOR 2008
Diary of Meetings
Indoor meetings at the Natural History Museum will take place in the Palaeontology Demonstration Room a.k.a. the Dorothea Bate Room at the end of Gallery 30.
The Programme Secretary will be happy to receive any offers to lead field meetings or suggestions for speakers for indoor meetings.
Photos from some
recent meetings
You are strongly recommended to read our Health & Safety Policy before attending any of our meetings
FIELD – Saturday 28 June 2008:
Fens Pools, Brierley Hill, West Midlands. Freshwater meeting.
Leader: Ellen Pisolkar (0121 444 0819) (home)
Meet at 10:30 h in the car park adjacent to the Warden’s office at the Dell Stadium, Bryce Road, Pensnett, grid ref. SO 911881. For those wishing to travel by public transport, bus 139 leaves stop AE in Colmore Row, Birmingham, next to St Philip’s cathedral, at 09:08, reaching Merry Hill bus station at 10:09. Bus 236A leaves Merry Hill at 10:21 and arrives at Bryce Road at 10:30.
Please contact the Leader for information on car travel to this site.
Bring sandwiches, wellingtons or stout footwear and water sampling equipment.
FIELD – Saturday 5 July 2008:
Hunstanton, Norfolk. Marine meeting.
Leader: Steve Wilkinson. Note change of leader and contact details
01733 564976) (home), 07763 797942 (mobile), stevebwilkinson@btinternet
Meet at 13:00 h in the Cliff Car Park, grid ref. TF 678423. Participants coming by train can be picked up at Kings Lynn railway station. The last suitable train from Kings Cross, London is 10:45 h from King's Cross which arrives in King's Lynn at 12:21 h. Participants travelling by road should come in on the A149 to Hunstanton and take the road signposted to the cliffs. You can see the lighthouse from the car park. There may be a charge. Please let Steve know what your travel arrangements are.
Low tide is about 15.30. We plan to follow the tide down. This attractive town is on the edge of the Wash; there are low cliffs, a very, very long sandy beach and Mytilus beds further out. All British species of Ensis are living here, including the alien E. americanus. It is a long time since the Society ran field meeting here, it will be good to update our records.
FIELD – Saturday and Sunday 16-17 August
Northern Ireland.
Leader: Roy Anderson.
(02890 582686) (home)
The intended study locations for this weekend meeting are: the Lough Navar Highlands south of Lower Lough Erne to search for Vertigo geyeri, V. lilljeborgi, Succinella oblonga etc.; Florencecourt Demesne (NT) in south Fermanagh, which despite being a fabulous place scenically and with limestone cliffs etc. has very few molluscan records; Pettigo Plateau, west Fermanagh, an area of bog with small limestone loughans, not well known but could be interesting; and Marl Loughs, South Fermanagh, which are spring-fed limestone lakes possibly with Vertigo moulinsiana.
Members interested in joining us over the weekend should contact Roy Anderson at roy.anderson@ntlworld.com or Adrian Norris at
If you would like to book accommodation for the weekend please contact Roy Anderson as soon as possible so that he can supply you with the information as soon as it can be made available.
We hope to be able to have a pre-field meeting to talk through various recording issues which will probably take place on Friday the 15th of August in N. Ireland. If you are interested in attending this far more informal meeting please inform us in advance.
YCS - Saturday 6 September:
Haxby.
Contact: David Lindley
(0113 2697047) (home), david.lindley3@btinternet.com
Meet at 10:30 h at Terry Crawford's house, 2 Crooklands Lane, Haxby, York, grid ref. SE 610586 for Haxby ponds and general area.
FIELD - Monday to Thursday 15-18 September:
Lleyn Peninsula, North Wales.
Marine meeting.
Leader: Tom Clifton
01248 853359 (home) 07767 494355 (mobile) cliftontom4048@uwclub.net
Meet initially in Benllech, Anglesey at a time to be arranged.
Monday 15 September: Afternoon. Trefor, Lleyn Peninsula SH 372476. Meet at the car park on the sea front at Trefor SH 376473 at 15:00 h Between Dinas Dinlle and Nefyn there is a long stretch of uninteresting shores of unstable rolling boulders, this is where the shore starts to improve before reaching Nefyn; a full survey of this area would be helpful. (1.1m tide at 16:59 h).
Tuesday 16 September: Morning session at Seaspray, Rhianfa, Benllech, SH 519820 to examine specimens; all are welcome. If anyone can bring a microscope along it will help this session.
Tuesday 16 September: Afternoon. The Swellies, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, SH 549716. Meet at the Menai Bridge car park SH 554718 at 16:30 h This local site will reduce the daily driving to the Lleyn, it is also an interesting area where the Straits narrow to pass under the Menai Bridge and is an excellent catchment area for material coming up the Strait on the tide. (0.8m tide at 18:52 h)
Wednesday 17 September: Morning session at Seaspray, Rhianfa, Benllech, SH 519820 to examine specimens, all are welcome. If anyone can bring a microscope along it will help this session.
Wednesday 17 September: Afternoon. Traeth Crugan, Lleyn Peninsula, SH 343326. Meet at SH 341327 at 14:30 h This will hopefully provide an opportunity to see live Shipworms providing they are still in situ. This area has a unique range of live species which can be found from shore based surveys, such as Modiolus modiolus, Tapes aureus and T. decussatus etc.; it will be interesting to know why this area is so different from others. (0.7m tide at 16:51)
Thursday 18 September: Morning session at Seaspray, Rhianfa, Benllech, SH 519820 to examine specimens, all are welcome. If anyone can bring a microscope along it will help this session.
Thursday 18 September: Afternoon. Porth Towyn/Porth Ysgaden, Lleyn Peninsula, SH 230375/SH 219375. Meet at Porth Towyn Farmer’s field car park SH 232374 at 16:00 h This will hopefully allow time to collect some top quality shell sand. Those who want to go to Porth Ysgaden can park at SH 220375 at 16:15 h (0.9m tide at 18.20).
NHM – Saturday 4 October 2008:
11:00 h in the Demonstration Room.
Note the revised earlier start time. No Council meeting.
Please bring plenty of exhibits and demonstration material. Lunch break at about 13:00 h, lecture to start at about 14:00 h
The morning’s activities will include a talk about the microfauna of semi-embedded littoral boulders by Jan Light, including a demonstration of species and searching techniques, exhibits and demonstrations on recent and fossil Pectinidae, and other options still at the planning stage. Members are encouraged to bring specimens of any Mollusca for identification, a x20 binocular microscope will be available if needed.
Guest Speaker at 14:00 h Adele Grindon from Nottingham University on the subject of ‘The colonisation of Ireland: Myths, Mystery, and Molluscs’.
Abstract
While more than 99% of the Irish biota is in common with Britain, it has long been recognised that there is also a characteristic but mysterious “Lusitanian” element, since several species are present in Iberia and Ireland but absent from Britain (e.g. Strawberry tree, Kerry slug). Although the land snail Cepaea nemoralis is widespread across Europe, it has been suspected that some populations on the west coast of Ireland may have a Spanish, specifically Pyrenean, origin because of their characteristic morphology. I therefore obtained molecular sequence data for this species, using snails from over 100 separate locations across Western Europe, including a transect across the North of Spain and the Pyrenees, and collected mitochondrial sequence data for >950 individuals. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences reveals that the majority of Irish populations probably originate from a geographically restricted source in the Pyrenees, supporting similar recent results in other species. Given that fossil data indicates the presence of C. nemoralis in Ireland for at least 8000 years, the significance of these findings in relation to the post-glacial colonisation of Ireland will be discussed. One immediate consequence is to wonder how many other Irish species are of cryptic “Lusitanian” or Iberian origin?
FIELD – Saturday and Sunday 11-12 October 2008:
Forest of Dean / Wye Valley. Malacolimax tenellus search.
Leader: David Long
01242 527673 (home)
Members should bring packed lunch and drinks, also suitable clothing and equipment. It is intended to visit 3 - 4 sites per day.
Meet on Saturday 11 October at 10:30 h at the Foxes Bridge car park on the B4226, the Cinderford to Coleford road, at SO 632124. This is about 1 km east of the Speech House Hotel, which should be able to offer coffee and a toilet from c.10:00 h
Meet on Sunday 12 October at 10:30 h at the Organ’s Green car park, SO 655080, north-west of Blakeney; this is signed by the Forestry Commission as Wench Ford. Toilet facilities (subject to check as closed in off season, but will try and update this on the Society’s Website, nearer the meeting).
Malacolimax tenellus has been found, in small numbers mainly, in a variety of deciduous woodland sites in the Forest of Dean which you would not necessarily associate with many molluscs.
YCS – Saturday 11 October 2008:
Weedley Springs.
Contact: David Lindley
0113 2697047 (home), david.lindley3@btinternet.com
Meet at 10:30 h near the church in West End near South Cave, VC 61, grid ref. SE 915309 for Weedley Springs and 1km recording
Saturday 25 October 2008: all-day Council meeting at NHM
INDOOR – Saturday and Sunday 15-16 November 2008:
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff. Two-day meeting.
Contact: Ben Rowson email: ben.rowson@museumwales.ac.uk, 07817 377 484 (mobile).
The programme will include short presentations on molluscan subjects, a workshop on the marine pyramidellid microgastropods Odostomia and Brachystomia, and a workshop on comparisons of live British slugs with an introduction to dissection and recent name changes. Difficult-to-identify British bivalves may also be brought to the meeting. Those wishing to contribute a short presentation should contact Ben. Further details to be announced.
WKSHP – Saturday 29 November 2008:
Please click on the above link for further details.
The annual workshop held in Woking offers members the opportunity to receive tuition on identifying difficult groups.
Bookings to Judith Nelson (01483 761210)(home)
Provisional subjects: Identification of Succineidae and small marine bivalves
NHM – Saturday 6 December 2008:
14:00 h in the Demonstration Room, preceded by Council meeting.
Molluscan quiz devised by Jane Bonney.
NHM – Saturday 31 January 2009:
11:00 h in the in the Dorothea Bate Room [Palaeontology Demonstration Room]
Note the revised earlier start time. No Council meeting.
Please bring plenty of exhibits and demonstration material. There will be a lunch break at about 13:00 h. Lecture to start at 14:00 h.
The morning’s activities will include a demonstration of the Cepaea megalab project including, it is hoped, a live interactive demonstration of the project web site.
Members are encouraged to bring specimens of any Mollusca for identification, a X20 binocular microscope will be available if needed.
Guest Speaker at 14:00 h Tom Clifton from Benllech, Anglesey on the subject of ‘Recent investigations on shipworms’.
Fens Pools, Brierley Hill, West Midlands. Freshwater meeting.
Leader: Ellen Pisolkar (0121 444 0819) (home)
Meet at 10:30 h in the car park adjacent to the Warden’s office at the Dell Stadium, Bryce Road, Pensnett, grid ref. SO 911881. For those wishing to travel by public transport, bus 139 leaves stop AE in Colmore Row, Birmingham, next to St Philip’s cathedral, at 09:08, reaching Merry Hill bus station at 10:09. Bus 236A leaves Merry Hill at 10:21 and arrives at Bryce Road at 10:30.
Please contact the Leader for information on car travel to this site.
Bring sandwiches, wellingtons or stout footwear and water sampling equipment.
FIELD – Saturday 5 July 2008:
Hunstanton, Norfolk. Marine meeting.
Leader: Steve Wilkinson. Note change of leader and contact details
01733 564976) (home), 07763 797942 (mobile), stevebwilkinson@btinternet
Meet at 13:00 h in the Cliff Car Park, grid ref. TF 678423. Participants coming by train can be picked up at Kings Lynn railway station. The last suitable train from Kings Cross, London is 10:45 h from King's Cross which arrives in King's Lynn at 12:21 h. Participants travelling by road should come in on the A149 to Hunstanton and take the road signposted to the cliffs. You can see the lighthouse from the car park. There may be a charge. Please let Steve know what your travel arrangements are.
Low tide is about 15.30. We plan to follow the tide down. This attractive town is on the edge of the Wash; there are low cliffs, a very, very long sandy beach and Mytilus beds further out. All British species of Ensis are living here, including the alien E. americanus. It is a long time since the Society ran field meeting here, it will be good to update our records.
FIELD – Saturday and Sunday 16-17 August
Northern Ireland.
Leader: Roy Anderson.
(02890 582686) (home)
The intended study locations for this weekend meeting are: the Lough Navar Highlands south of Lower Lough Erne to search for Vertigo geyeri, V. lilljeborgi, Succinella oblonga etc.; Florencecourt Demesne (NT) in south Fermanagh, which despite being a fabulous place scenically and with limestone cliffs etc. has very few molluscan records; Pettigo Plateau, west Fermanagh, an area of bog with small limestone loughans, not well known but could be interesting; and Marl Loughs, South Fermanagh, which are spring-fed limestone lakes possibly with Vertigo moulinsiana.
Members interested in joining us over the weekend should contact Roy Anderson at roy.anderson@ntlworld.com or Adrian Norris at
If you would like to book accommodation for the weekend please contact Roy Anderson as soon as possible so that he can supply you with the information as soon as it can be made available.
We hope to be able to have a pre-field meeting to talk through various recording issues which will probably take place on Friday the 15th of August in N. Ireland. If you are interested in attending this far more informal meeting please inform us in advance.
YCS - Saturday 6 September:
Haxby.
Contact: David Lindley
(0113 2697047) (home), david.lindley3@btinternet.com
Meet at 10:30 h at Terry Crawford's house, 2 Crooklands Lane, Haxby, York, grid ref. SE 610586 for Haxby ponds and general area.
FIELD - Monday to Thursday 15-18 September:
Lleyn Peninsula, North Wales.
Marine meeting.
Leader: Tom Clifton
01248 853359 (home) 07767 494355 (mobile) cliftontom4048@uwclub.net
Meet initially in Benllech, Anglesey at a time to be arranged.
Monday 15 September: Afternoon. Trefor, Lleyn Peninsula SH 372476. Meet at the car park on the sea front at Trefor SH 376473 at 15:00 h Between Dinas Dinlle and Nefyn there is a long stretch of uninteresting shores of unstable rolling boulders, this is where the shore starts to improve before reaching Nefyn; a full survey of this area would be helpful. (1.1m tide at 16:59 h).
Tuesday 16 September: Morning session at Seaspray, Rhianfa, Benllech, SH 519820 to examine specimens; all are welcome. If anyone can bring a microscope along it will help this session.
Tuesday 16 September: Afternoon. The Swellies, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, SH 549716. Meet at the Menai Bridge car park SH 554718 at 16:30 h This local site will reduce the daily driving to the Lleyn, it is also an interesting area where the Straits narrow to pass under the Menai Bridge and is an excellent catchment area for material coming up the Strait on the tide. (0.8m tide at 18:52 h)
Wednesday 17 September: Morning session at Seaspray, Rhianfa, Benllech, SH 519820 to examine specimens, all are welcome. If anyone can bring a microscope along it will help this session.
Wednesday 17 September: Afternoon. Traeth Crugan, Lleyn Peninsula, SH 343326. Meet at SH 341327 at 14:30 h This will hopefully provide an opportunity to see live Shipworms providing they are still in situ. This area has a unique range of live species which can be found from shore based surveys, such as Modiolus modiolus, Tapes aureus and T. decussatus etc.; it will be interesting to know why this area is so different from others. (0.7m tide at 16:51)
Thursday 18 September: Morning session at Seaspray, Rhianfa, Benllech, SH 519820 to examine specimens, all are welcome. If anyone can bring a microscope along it will help this session.
Thursday 18 September: Afternoon. Porth Towyn/Porth Ysgaden, Lleyn Peninsula, SH 230375/SH 219375. Meet at Porth Towyn Farmer’s field car park SH 232374 at 16:00 h This will hopefully allow time to collect some top quality shell sand. Those who want to go to Porth Ysgaden can park at SH 220375 at 16:15 h (0.9m tide at 18.20).
NHM – Saturday 4 October 2008:
11:00 h in the Demonstration Room.
Note the revised earlier start time. No Council meeting.
Please bring plenty of exhibits and demonstration material. Lunch break at about 13:00 h, lecture to start at about 14:00 h
The morning’s activities will include a talk about the microfauna of semi-embedded littoral boulders by Jan Light, including a demonstration of species and searching techniques, exhibits and demonstrations on recent and fossil Pectinidae, and other options still at the planning stage. Members are encouraged to bring specimens of any Mollusca for identification, a x20 binocular microscope will be available if needed.
Guest Speaker at 14:00 h Adele Grindon from Nottingham University on the subject of ‘The colonisation of Ireland: Myths, Mystery, and Molluscs’.
Abstract
While more than 99% of the Irish biota is in common with Britain, it has long been recognised that there is also a characteristic but mysterious “Lusitanian” element, since several species are present in Iberia and Ireland but absent from Britain (e.g. Strawberry tree, Kerry slug). Although the land snail Cepaea nemoralis is widespread across Europe, it has been suspected that some populations on the west coast of Ireland may have a Spanish, specifically Pyrenean, origin because of their characteristic morphology. I therefore obtained molecular sequence data for this species, using snails from over 100 separate locations across Western Europe, including a transect across the North of Spain and the Pyrenees, and collected mitochondrial sequence data for >950 individuals. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences reveals that the majority of Irish populations probably originate from a geographically restricted source in the Pyrenees, supporting similar recent results in other species. Given that fossil data indicates the presence of C. nemoralis in Ireland for at least 8000 years, the significance of these findings in relation to the post-glacial colonisation of Ireland will be discussed. One immediate consequence is to wonder how many other Irish species are of cryptic “Lusitanian” or Iberian origin?
FIELD – Saturday and Sunday 11-12 October 2008:
Forest of Dean / Wye Valley. Malacolimax tenellus search.
Leader: David Long
01242 527673 (home)
Members should bring packed lunch and drinks, also suitable clothing and equipment. It is intended to visit 3 - 4 sites per day.
Meet on Saturday 11 October at 10:30 h at the Foxes Bridge car park on the B4226, the Cinderford to Coleford road, at SO 632124. This is about 1 km east of the Speech House Hotel, which should be able to offer coffee and a toilet from c.10:00 h
Meet on Sunday 12 October at 10:30 h at the Organ’s Green car park, SO 655080, north-west of Blakeney; this is signed by the Forestry Commission as Wench Ford. Toilet facilities (subject to check as closed in off season, but will try and update this on the Society’s Website, nearer the meeting).
Malacolimax tenellus has been found, in small numbers mainly, in a variety of deciduous woodland sites in the Forest of Dean which you would not necessarily associate with many molluscs.
YCS – Saturday 11 October 2008:
Weedley Springs.
Contact: David Lindley
0113 2697047 (home), david.lindley3@btinternet.com
Meet at 10:30 h near the church in West End near South Cave, VC 61, grid ref. SE 915309 for Weedley Springs and 1km recording
Saturday 25 October 2008: all-day Council meeting at NHM
INDOOR – Saturday and Sunday 15-16 November 2008:
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff. Two-day meeting.
Contact: Ben Rowson email: ben.rowson@museumwales.ac.uk, 07817 377 484 (mobile).
The programme will include short presentations on molluscan subjects, a workshop on the marine pyramidellid microgastropods Odostomia and Brachystomia, and a workshop on comparisons of live British slugs with an introduction to dissection and recent name changes. Difficult-to-identify British bivalves may also be brought to the meeting. Those wishing to contribute a short presentation should contact Ben. Further details to be announced.
WKSHP – Saturday 29 November 2008:
Please click on the above link for further details.
The annual workshop held in Woking offers members the opportunity to receive tuition on identifying difficult groups.
Bookings to Judith Nelson (01483 761210)(home)
Provisional subjects: Identification of Succineidae and small marine bivalves
NHM – Saturday 6 December 2008:
14:00 h in the Demonstration Room, preceded by Council meeting.
Molluscan quiz devised by Jane Bonney.
NHM – Saturday 31 January 2009:
11:00 h in the in the Dorothea Bate Room [Palaeontology Demonstration Room]
Note the revised earlier start time. No Council meeting.
Please bring plenty of exhibits and demonstration material. There will be a lunch break at about 13:00 h. Lecture to start at 14:00 h.
The morning’s activities will include a demonstration of the Cepaea megalab project including, it is hoped, a live interactive demonstration of the project web site.
Members are encouraged to bring specimens of any Mollusca for identification, a X20 binocular microscope will be available if needed.
Guest Speaker at 14:00 h Tom Clifton from Benllech, Anglesey on the subject of ‘Recent investigations on shipworms’.