This excellent starter pack is sent to all new members of Dipterists Forum. It summarises much of the information needed to study Britsh flies. Chapters include: Why Study Flies?, Fieldwork, Maintaining and using Collections, Keeping Safe, Photographing Diptera, Handling Records and Organising Data, Museum Collections, Publishing, Conservation, Entomological and Other Societies, Equipment, Equipment Suppliers, Suppliers of Books and Other Literature, Recording Schemes and Study Groups, The British Fly Fauna, References and Further Reading

The chapter on The British Fly Fauna is particularly useful for the table which gives, for each family: the no of species, the range of sizes, the ease (or otherwise) of identification, Recording Schemes and Study Groups, Keys and References. This enables the dipterist to quickly ascertain the appropriate uptodate literature.

Downloadable from the members area of the Diperists Forum website. (See the instructions on this site’s review page for the Dipterists Forum Website.)

A few nit-picking comments which in no way detract from the usefulness of the publication:

P24: "Substantial amounts" of alcohol means over a litre. Glass tubes for storing specimens in alcohol: best to use those without finned caps (Watkins and Doncaster do excellent small "alcohol" tubes). If using finned caps, make sure the fins aren’t damaged. An alternative is to seal the ends by dipping in molten paraffin wax.

P47: The "Polyporus" bracket fungus has been called *Piptoporus* (*betulinus*) for at least 50 years!

P52: the phone number listed for the supplier of DMHF is "not available". (The DMHF jinx strikes again!)