Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a specialized one-day (8-hour) workshop on chironomid identification that will be held as part of the ASLO-SIL Meeting.

This intensive training is designed to provide both theoretical background and hands-on experience in the identification of chironomid larvae. The workshop will cover key subfamilies (Tanypodinae, Diamesinae, Orthocladiinae, and Chironominae), with a strong focus on practical skills, including specimen handling, slide preparation, and recognition of diagnostic morphological features.

In addition, we will present a novel approach based on deep learning and computer vision for the automatic identification of chironomids, demonstrating how modern AI tools can complement traditional taxonomy and enhance biomonitoring workflows.

The course is suitable for participants with different levels of prior experience and aims to strengthen practical taxonomic skills essential for aquatic biomonitoring. Important information:

  • Duration: 1 day (8 hours)
  • Participation fee: 100 (EUR) (payment on-site)
  • Number of participants: limited to 10
  • Registration: first 10 applicants will be accepted

To register, please send your application to:

djuradj.milosevic@pmf.edu.rs

Instructors

Prof. dr Djuradj Milosevic

Prof. dr Andrew Medeiros

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the next EWCIM workshop will be held at the Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, in Bratislava, Slovakia, from January 27th to 31st, 2025.

The intense five-day workshop will include introductory lectures on ecology and morphology of chironomid larvae, demonstrations, and practical sessions, tailored to participants with varying levels of knowledge. The program will focus on the most common subfamilies, Tanypodinae, Diamesinae, Orthocladiinae, and Chironominae, covering both theoretical and practical aspects. An international team of chironomid specialists will guide participants through essential identification techniques, including larvae handling, slide preparation methods, and recognizing morphological characteristics.

Registration and payment deadline is 30th November 2024

To register for participation, please send your data to: dubravka.cerba@vuvh.sk

When applying, please provide the following data:
e-mail:
Name of the organization (if applicable):
Address of the organization (if applicable):
Bank details:
IBAN:
Tax ID:
VAT Number:

The participation fee of €500 (+bank transfer expenses) includes the course, training materials, coffee breaks, lunches for all five training days, and the closing dinner.

Payment information:
Bank: Štátna pokladnica, Radlinského 32, 810 05 Bratislava
Account number: SK08 8180 0000 0070 0066 4925
SWIFT CODE: SPSRSKBA
Payment reference number (VS): 27012025 (date of conference)
Comment: EWCIM 2025 + first and last name of the participant

For more details on previous workshops and additional information, please visit website: http://www1.pmf.ni.ac.rs/pmf/ewcim or contact us via e-mail.

Your instructors:

Dubravka Čerba, Ladislav Hamerlík, and Djuradj Milošević

Dear all,


Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we are sorry to inform you that the 4th European Workshop on Chironomidae Identification Methodology (EWCIM) has been canceled.

Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. We are looking forward to organizing the EWCIM workshop at the Department of Biology, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia in the future, once this pandemic passes. In the meantime, please stay safe.

Sincerely,

EWCIM Team

Welcome to the 4th European Workshop on Chironomidae Identification Methodology (EWCIM) !

Dear all,

Next year’s EWCIM workshop will be held at the Department of Biology, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia - 2nd to 6th February 2021

Workshop is continuing for five days and will include: introduction lectures, demonstrations and practical work, suitable for participants with different levels of foreknowledge. During the training days, four chironomid subfamilies (Tanypodinae, Diamesinae, Orthocladiinae and Chironominae), will be covered both in theory and practice. An international team of researchers - chironomid specialists, will demonstrate, instruct and help the participants to master the techniques necessary for identification – larvae handling, different techniques of slide preparation and distinguishing morphological characteristics.

Participation fee of €400 (+bank transfer expenses) includes: the costs of the course, working materials, coffee breaks and lunches for all five days of training course, and the closing dinner.

Dear all,

We are glad to inform you that we are organizing the 3rd European Workshop on Chironomidae Identification Methodology (EWCIM).

The workshop will be held at the Matei Bel University, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, 21st - 25th of January 2019.

We have booked accommodations in pension which is situated 500m from Faculty of Natural Sciences, where workshop will be organized. Price is 18€ /person/night. There is a possibility to have breakfast there - you can "check" that option in the registration form.

Photo Gallery

Why Chironomidae?

Members of the Chironomidae family (Diptera) are one of the dominant and most diverse aquatic macroinvertebrate groups and also probably the most widely distributed insect family in freshwaters (all types of water bodies, all continents) and can even be found in marine habitats. Freshwaters at high altitudes and latitudes are colonized mainly by Chironomidae. Nearly 1200 species are known from Europe, and about 2000 from the Holarctic, but the total number of the species worldwide is estimated to be around 15000.

Chironomid larvae play an essential role in food webs, energy flow and ecosystem functioning, as they are ecosystem engineers, good colonizers and represent a main link between different trophic levels within aquatic ecosystems.

Furthermore,chironomid larvae are excellent indicators of water quality as there are many both sensitive speices and species tolerant to physical and chemical disturbances of their habitat, and represent a key group in most national bioassessment and monitoring programmes.






Instructors



Dr Djuradj Milosevic

Departman of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, University of Niš, Serbia

Dr Dubravka ÄŒerba

Department of Biology, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Croatia


Dr Ladislav Hamerlík

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Matej Bel University, Slovakia

Dr Vít Syrovátka

Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, The Czech Republic







Program

The program will include different activities: introduction lectures, demonstrations and practical work, suitable for participants with different levels of foreknowledge. During four training days, five chironomid subfamilies (Tanypodinae, Diamesinae, Prodiamesinae, Orthocladiinae and Chironominae), will be covered both in theory and practice. An international team of researchers - chironomid specialists - will demonstrate, instruct and help the participants to master the techniques necessary for identification – larvae handling, slide preparation and distinguishing morphological characteristics.