Busy Busy Busy!

Ever wish there were more hours in the day sometimes? I could certainly use a few extra hours this week…

On top of writing up my thesis, I’m also putting together a website for an upcoming conference (check back in a few weeks for details), finishing up a paper to submit (again, when it’s accepted expect some celebrations here), and also getting two presentations and all my gear ready for next week when I go to Costa Rica and the 7th International Congress of Dipterology! Hard to believe I leave on Monday night considering all I have to do before then, but it looks like it’s going to be an awesome trip!

Before the meeting starts, myself and a group of fellow Guelph grad students will be spending 4 nights at the El Copal Lodge in the central lowlands of Costa Rica where we’ll be doing some collecting, shooting, and exploring. This should be an interesting location, because to the best of our knowledge it’s a very under-sampled region with very few if any prior trips to the area by dipterists!

After that trip we’re heading back to San Jose for the biggest fly conference known to science. This quadrennial conference brings together dipterists from around the world to share their work and get to know one another. Consider it the Olympics of Dipterology. It’s shaping up to be a great meeting with plenty of interesting plenary sessions and loads of individual papers to be presented, and I’ll be bringing you the highlights of each day (internet permitting of course)!

Finally, after the conference I’ll be traveling with 30 other delegates to the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste on the Pacific side of Costa Rica for another 4 nights. This area has received a lot of attention from entomologists in the past, and I’m really excited to see the diversity of habitats surrounding the station, from the Pacific coast on up to the high altitude cloud forests!

So what does this mean for you, the loyal reader? Well I’m hoping to be making plenty of updates whenever I can find an internet connection, including some live-blogging from the conference for all of you who won’t be able to make it and bug(s) of the day. I’m also hoping to make some contacts for some new articles and special features that I hope to  roll out in the near future. So check back often over the next few weeks especially and of course stick around for all your fly-related photos and fun!