Business trip report, Slovakia, Let

5^th European workshop on Chironomidae identification methodology (EWCIM) 2025

From January 27 to 31, 2025, a workshop focused on the morphological identification of chironomid larvae was held at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The workshop was attended by 14 participants and 4 instructors from a total of 9 countries. Participants were introduced to the ecology of chironomids, larval identification methods (both traditional and computer-assisted), and some interesting applications of chironomid morphology in research on their biodiversity and environmental studies. The workshop covered the subfamilies and genera of European chironomids in detail, including species-specific characteristics for many genera. However, the main part of the workshop was dedicated to the practical identification of larvae from numerous species using identification keys (each participant had access to a stereomicroscope and a microscope for this purpose).