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.
Indoor meetings at the Natural History Museum will take place in the Dorothea Bate Room [Palaeontology Demonstration Room] at the end of Gallery 30. Please note the earlier start times, and also the long indoor meeting in January and October with an early start time of 11:00 h. Please bring plenty of exhibits and demonstration material.
The Programme Secretary will be happy to receive any offers to lead field meetings or suggestions for speakers for indoor meetings.
Key to Meetings
NHM = Natural History Museum, London, indoor meeting
FIELD = Field Meeting at outdoor location
WKSHP = Workshop on molluscan topic
You are strongly recommended to read our Health & Safety Policy before attending any meeting
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.
Click on the link text for more details of a particular meeting.
YCS – Saturday 4 September 2010. Settrington area, VC62.
Contact: David Lindley (0113 2697047) (home), Email:
Meet at 10:30 h in the village centre, SE 834703, for 1 km recording.
FIELD – Wednesday – Sunday 8–11 September 2010
Isles of Scilly Marine meeting.
Joint meeting with the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society.
Co-ordination and contact for details: Angie Gall, Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust (Email: angiegall@gmail.com (01872 240777 ext. 265) (work).This joint meeting in the Scillies is being hosted by Porcupine who are making arrangements for laboratory accommodation and boat transport to the various islands, for which there will be a charge of £35. Please contact Angie Gall to book the boats and lab space. The entire meeting is expected to run from Monday 6 September until Monday 13 September, but the Conch Soc component will run from 8–11 September when the best tides for shore work are. Ron Boyce will prepare health and safety documentation for the Wednesday/Saturday period.
On arrival please contact Angie Gall on 07812 009381 or Abby Crosby on 07917 765581.
Lab space is in the card room at the Scillonian Club in Hugh Town. This is not normally a lab and we will need to bring everything we require to use there, except for sea water which is adjacent. Lab space can also be found in the Woolpack Battery if necessary.
Itinerary:
Wednesday 8 September: the boat leaves St Mary’s Quay for Tresco at 09:00 h, low water is 0.5 m at 11.37 h.
Thursday 9 September: the boat leaves St Mary’s Quay for St Agnes at 09:00 h, low water is 0.3 m at 12.21 h.
Friday 10 September: the boat leaves St Mary’s Quay for St Martin’s at 10:00 h to work St Martin’s Flats, low water is 0.3 m at 13.03 h.
Saturday 11 September: the boat leaves St Mary’s Quay for St Martin’s at 11:00 h to work White Island, low water is 0.4 m at 13.45 h.
Sunday 12 September: if wished, we could join Porcupine at 12:15 h to work the shore at Pelistry on St Mary’s; this is a 1.5-mile walk from Hugh Town, low water is 0.7 m at 14:26 h.
YCS – Saturday 2 October 2010. Upper Nidderdale, VC64.
Contact: David Lindley (0113 2697047) (home), Email:
Meet at 10:30 h in the car park in Pateley Bridge on the south side of the river, grid ref. SE 157654.
NHM – Saturday 2 October 2010
11:00 h. in the in the Dorothea Bate Room [Palaeontology Demonstration Room] Please note the revised 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 programme is still at the planning stage but may include African molluscs and marine and non-marine material from Skye.
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. Robert Cameron (University of Sheffield): Thoughts on an extraordinary snail: Helixena in the Azores and other molluscan oddities
NHM – Saturday 16 October 2010 11:00 h in the Board Room of the Natural History Museum. Full day meeting of Council only.
FIELD – Saturday and Sunday 23–24 October 2010. South Devon. Malacolimax tenellus search.
Leader: Keith Alexander (01392 413092) (home) (07972 373405) (mobile)
In South Devon Malacolimax tenellus is at the western edge of its GB range.
Meet on the Saturday at 10:30 h in the public car park at Blackbury Camp, Southleigh (grid ref. SY189923) on a minor road off the B3174 between Ottery St Mary and the Sidmouth to Seaton road (A3052). The nearest station is Honiton, on the London Waterloo to Exeter line. Bring packed lunch. This is the single historic site for the slug in the county. In the afternoon we will be making a return visit to Roncombe Goyle, the only Devon site with a recent record, and where the Society recently confirmed Phenacolimax major. On Sunday, meet at 10:30 h east of Buckland Bridge on the River Dart (SX720720) on the east side of Dartmoor between Buckland in the Moor and Holne. The woods here are part of Holne Chase and considered a potential area for the slug although it has never been found in the National Park.
FIELD – Saturday 30 October 2010. Wyre Forest, Worcestershire. Malacolimax tenellus search. Joint meeting with the Wyre Forest Study Group.
Leader: Rosemary Winnall (01299 266489) (home) (07732 203393) (mobile)
Meet at 10:30 h at the Wyre Forest Visitor Centre, Callow Hill near Bewdley (DY14 9XQ), grid ref. SO 750740. The aim of this meeting is to study the distribution of this species within the Forest, though records of other species are also sought.
INDOOR – Saturday 6 November 2010. Regional meeting in Cambridge.
Meet at 11:00 h at the University Museum of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge for a demonstration of the mollusc collection. Further details will be posted on the Web Site.
WKSHP – Saturday 27 November 2010:
The annual workshop held in Woking offers members the opportunity to receive tuition on identifying difficult groups. More information »
Bookings to Judith Nelson (01483 761210) (home)
NHM – Saturday 11 December 2010. 14:00 h in the Dorothea Bate Room [Palaeontology Demonstration Room], preceded by Council meeting.
Guest speaker: John Llewellyn-Jones (West Mersea)
Molluscs in China
NHM – Saturday 29 January 2011. 11:00 h at a venue to be arranged.
Please note the revised 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.
There will be a workshop on the field identification of all the British littorinids: 4 Lacuna species, Melarhaphe neritoides and the six Littorina species (littorea, obtusata, fabalis, compressa, arcana, saxatilis). Some of these (particularly the Littorina species) show extreme variation according to microhabitat and geographical origin. Most species can be identified from shells, but unequivocal separation of L. arcana and L. saxatilis requires a simple anatomical examination. Samples of all these species will be available for study. Members are encouraged to bring along their own material of Littorinidae (both British and worldwide) for comparison and identification.
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. David Reid (Natural History Museum, London) Worldwide periwinkles: the evolution, diversity and changing classification of the Littorinidae
Abstract:
Although often thought of as characteristic of temperate shores, Littorinidae are in fact a worldwide family, reaching their highest diversity in the tropics. The great majority are found on intertidal rocky shores, but they are also found subtidally, on mangrove trees, and even in the mountain streams of India. Currently, about 200 species are recognized in 16 genera. The shells are mostly rather uniform in overall appearance, and often highly variable within species, so that their classification has been controversial. However, with the advent of detailed anatomical work and cladistic analysis in the 1980s, and the more recent molecular studies, it is now possible to define species and genera with some confidence. The phylogenetic work that has been done on littorinids has made them a model system for the study of global patterns of biogeography and speciation.
