 International
Conclave Proposed for
Lampyridae
Enthusiasts in 2007
 MESSAGE
OF 9/14/2006
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for your overwhelming enthusiasm. Up till now
I haven’t received a lot of response about a Firefly
Meeting 2007:
Some people seem to be unsure as they have to give lectures,
classes or organise exams in June. The idea is to include
a weekend (e.g. 3 days: Friday-Sunday). In this way it could
still be interesting and possible for those to come over
and meet with the other lampyrid specialists. Dr. Viviani
and Dr. Maguire were very interested but –understandable-,
a trip to Portugal from respectively Brazil and Australia
was a bit to costly. Sara Lewis will be in Japan in that
period and cannot come, but she forwarded the message to
her students Adam South and Chris Cratsley who also work
on fireflies. For those who did not answer yet, please do
so in the coming days. I just have to get a rough idea how
many people would attend for practical reasons.
Cheers,
Raphaël De Cock
Coördinator Beheermonitoring Vlaamse Natuurreservaten
Instituut
voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek (INBO)
Kliniekstraat 25
1070 Brussel
(02) 558 18 37
fax (02) 558 18 05
gsm 0477 993 946
raphael.decock@inbo.be
Glimwormen gespot? Bezoek dan http://www.inbo.be/content/page.asp?pid=FAU_INS_GLW_Start
MESSAGE
OF 8/16/2006
Dear “Lampyridologistst” or “Fireflyers & Glow-wormers” (how
to address to people busy with Lampyridae?),
I am wondering if it would be useful to organise a (rather
informal) meeting on Lampyridae to gather as much as possible
people (researchers, non-professionals and enthusiasts).
The idea is to exchange information, get to know each other,
share views, for those who want to present talks, posters,
have some (interdisciplinary) discussions or have workshops
about some particular items. Who knows some interesting cooperations
and future projects might emerge. Note that presentations
should best be adapted to a general, multidisciplinary public.
The idea is to have a 3-4 day meeting + if possible a field
trip somewhere in the beginning of June 2007 (for example
7-10 June 2007).
Although this idea for a meeting is still in an embryonic
stage, I found 3 possibilities for a location till now:
 Most
tempting is a meeting in Portugal* at Gaia nature reserve
(near Porto) in June when they organise their yearly "noite
dos pirilampos" (glowworm nights), they have room to
stay and (multimedia) facilities for conferences (depending
on the amount of people attending, stays could be free or
could cost up to maximum ca. 200 euros/person (+ food, +
local transport!!!)). For the Europeans: flights to Porto
by Ryanair are really cheap! http://arcanjoaraujo.com/
Hochschule Wädenswil (near Zürich, Switzerland)
signalised a big interest in having such a “glow-worm
symposium” too, but I don’t have details yet
about their facilities.
Least attractive: I could book a conference room at
our institute here in Brussels, Belgium (in this case each
one will have to look for his own hotel which may become
costly especially for the people without funding)
If you know other possibilities? (the idea is to minimise
costs for stay, travel, etc.+ to include a field trip)
* also note that one wants to set up a Portuguese inventory
of species in 2007, so this meeting may result in some great
input for the local co-ordinators and volunteers.
An example of talk/poster topics could be:
- Species distribution studies
- Ecology and conservation biology
- Taxonomic and phylogenetical topics
- Behavioural studies
- Biochemistry of Lampyrid (or beetle?) luminescence
-
Etc.
Some examples of some workshop/group discussion items:
- Discussions about firefly conservation: how to monitor
populations, the need of research on the impact of (light)
pollution, habitat loss, habitat fragmentation on fireflies,
setup of the Portuguese inventory, …
- Discussions about
the phylogeny of luminescent beetles
- Discussions about the
evolution of bioluminescence in lampyrids
- Etc. more topics
are more than welcome
What is your view about all this? Please let me know as
soon as possible the need for such an event, how many people
are interested (let us put a deadline end of November). Let
me also know about which topic you would like to present
something (this only applies to people who really like to
talk about their research, findings, ideas,… so it
is not a must) or in which discussion group you would like
to participate. Please feel free to add topics! By the end
of November I will let you know how many participants there
are. If there are to few people from your particular field
of interest you could still decide to participate in another
group or walk out.
Please forward this invitation to people I forgot to include
or others possibly interested
Kind regards,
Raphaël De Cock
Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek
(INBO)
Kliniekstraat 25
1070 Brussel
(02) 558 18 37
fax (02) 558 18 05
gsm 0477 993 946
raphael.decock@inbo.be
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