BackgroundThis paper includes 2742 specimens of 18 species of black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) collected from 132 lotic sites in Turkish Thrace, the European part of Turkey, in the early summer of 2002 and 2003 and the spring of 2005 and 2006.New informationAll species are recorded from this region for the first time, and Metacnephia nigra (Rubtsov, 1940) is a new record for Turkey. Distributional and taxonomical remarks are given for each species.

The ethology of Dasypogon irinelae Weinberg, 1986 (Diptera, Asilidae) was studied in the area around Erzurum, Turkey, in 2001 and 2002. Its resting, foraging, feeding, courtship and mating behaviour was recorded for the first time.Kurzfassung. An der Raubfliege Dasypogon irinelae Weinberg, 1986 (Diptera, Asilidae) wurden 2001 und 2002 in der Gegend von Erzurum, Türkei, ethologische Beobachtungen angestellt. Das Ruheverhalten, der Nahrungserwerb, das Fressverhalten und das Balz-und Paarungsverhalten wurden erstmals für diese Art untersucht.

We here record five robber fly (Asilidae) species [Lasiopogon cinctus (Fabricius, 1781), Stenopogon mediterraneus Lehr, 1963, Saropogon longicornis (Macquart, 1838, Machimus arthriticus (Zeller, 1840), Machimus gonatistes (Zeller, 1840)] belonging to three subfamilies and four genera for the first time in Turkey. While all species are reported from Turkish Thrace, one of is also from Anatolia. Distributional data and taxonomical remarks with photographs of male genitalia and habitus for each species are given.

Frequency Response Functions (FRF) are one of the most useful methods of representation of machine-tool dynamics under force excitation. FRFs are usually obtained empirically through output measurements and force excitations are controlled by an external device such as hammers or shakers. This study offers an operational identification method which utilizes calculation of force applied during the process as an input for FRF identification. Force excitation is provided through face milling of a thin walled workpiece and acceleration measurements are taken during the process. FRF is calculated at a designated position by sampling workpiece-cutting tool contacts as individual tap tests and substituting a force calculation as input. Force coefficients need to be known for the force calculation. An experimental force coefficient identification method is proposed. In that case, a similar thin walled workpiece at a point with known FRF and acceleration measurements are utilized. Results are confirmed with FRF obtained in the same location for both identification of FRF and identification of force coefficients approaches.