Summary
The report revisits the historic Diptera records for Lancashire and Cheshire, updating the classic 1959 county list by Leonard Kidd and Alan Brindle using a newly digitised card index originally maintained and archived at Manchester Museum. The cards, many compiled by Harry Britten and later workers, were transcribed, standardised, and converted to modern taxonomy to produce a more complete and analysable dataset of regional fly records up to 1970. Geographic and taxonomic analyses show uneven recording effort, with strong coverage for conspicuous or well-studied groups and areas near major population centres. By integrating historical manuscript data with modern nomenclature, the project both clarifies past recording activity and provides a stronger baseline for present-day Diptera recording, atlas work, and future county checklist revisions.
Supporting files
Raw data extracted from the Card index:
HBC_data (XL file)
Appendix I: Cross-references from current species names to the scanned Harry Britten card index and Kidd and Brindle (1959)
App_I_Xrefs (Word doc)
Appendix II: Kidd and Brindle’s (1959) list updated to the end of 1970 and extended to cover all Diptera
App_II_KB (Word doc)
Scanned Diptera card index (PDF downloads):
2_Nem_2(Trichoceridae-Simuliidae)
3_Cec_1(Bibionidae-Mycetophilidae)
4_Cec_2(Cecidomyiidae-Cyrtidae)
5_Cec_3(Bombyliidae-Dolichopodidae)
6_Acal_1(Lonchopteridae-Platystomatidae)
8_Acal_3(Anthomyzidae-Chloropidae)
10_Cal_1(Muscoidea_Tachinidae)
Card index credits
These are Manchester Museum record cards with transcription by Phil Brighton and RECORD volunteers, and scanning by the Tanyptera Project.
Published February 2026
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