Scottish Invertebrate News Volume 3 Issue 1 The Scottish Invertebrate Conservation Newsletter March 2012 www.scottishinvertebrates.org.uk discoveries, this issue Inside this issue: also includes feature Welcome! 1 Bees, wasps, articles looking at sea Scottish Invertebrate 1-4 Welcome! Discoveries Butterflies, hoverflies squirts, dragonflies, Welcome to the fifth and oil beetles have all updates on Buglife 2011 Scottish 5 issue of Scottish been seen this season. projects in Scotland. Dragonfly report Invertebrate News! If your chosen There are also plenty of Action for Scottish 6-9 After a relatively mild specialist bugs aren’t events coming up as Invertebrates update winter, spring active just yet, well as volunteering Focus on Sea squirts 10 invertebrates are hopefully this opportunities, as you’ll 11-13 already out and about. newsletter will inspire see inside - so why not Bug Project updates It’s time to dust off the you to get out and see get in touch and Photo Competition 12 moth trap and begin what else is about. volunteer to share your Volunteer for Bugs 14-15 planning trips to find As well as new enthusiasm? wee beasties. Bug Events 16 Survey stirkes gold (red, green and blue!) with Zircon Reed Beetle! The Zircon reed beetle (Donacia aquatica) is a Red Data Book (RDB3) species of leaf beetle from the family Chrysomelidae. The under surface, legs and thorax are a shining gold, while the elytra have rainbow-like coloured bands of green, red, blue and gold running down them. Reed beetles are typically found on aquatic vegetation at the margins of open water and feed on a variety of sedge species. Adults of this species are usually found in May and June, and occasionally into July. The eggs are laid at the base of sedges in early summer and the larvae develop with their rear ends attached to underwater roots. The pupae develop in late summer and overwinter in tough fibrous pupal cocoons before emerging as adults the following Zircon reed beetle (Donacia aquatica) © Bjørli Lehrmann May. Occasionally there is a second brood in September and October. Natural Heritage (SNH). An adult was collected on the 24th of July 2011 at This species has undergone a dramatic decline since Endrick Mouth (NS42519041) at the south of Loch the 1980s with an 81% loss from sites in Scotland, Lomond. This is a new 10km record for this England and Wales. Threats to this species include species and quite a distance from the nearest water abstraction, draining of lakes and ponds, recent records in the Cairngorms and Inverness- disturbance of marginal vegetation, eutrophication, shire. pollution as well as habitat succession. The individual was collected while undertaking Suzanne Bairner, Buglife Site Condition Monitoring work at Endrick Mouth with Caledonian Conservation Ltd. for Scottish Scottish Invertebrate Discoveries light traps at RSPB Insh Marshes National Nature Reserve (NNR), they found a Lithophane species Every year new invertebrate discoveries are which they soon realised was a Conformist made in Scotland. From amazing ecology, to (Lithophane furcifera) – the first record for Scotland! records of species new to Scotland or science, It was sub-species furcifera, a probable immigrant, this section highlights just a handful of these which has only been recorded about fourteen times fascinating discoveries! in Britain and only twice since 1946, the last in 2007 Conformist—A New Moth for Scotland (subspecies suffusa was known to be resident in South Wales between 1859 and 1959 but with no further records is presumed to be extinct). News of Matthew’s amazing find was disseminated to the media via an RSPB press release and several newspapers ran the story along with an interview on Radio Scotland. Conformist subspecies furcifera, as caught at Insh Marshes, is thought to be an immigrant but there is a possibility of a hitherto undiscovered population at Insh Marshes! Watch this space... Pete Moore, Warden, RSPB Insh Marshes NNR Pink prowler update! Another Pink prowler (Oonops domesticus) has been discovered! This time, in Bridge of Allan on the 1st of December by Bob Dawson. This is only the third record of this tiny pink spider (1-2 mm long) in 17 years! The previous 2 discoveries, by members Conformist (Lithophane furcifera) © Pete Moore of the Scottish Buglife team, (in their own homes) were reported in Scottish Invertebrate News Volume The Scottish Highlands, in particular Badenoch 1, Issue 1 & Volume 2, Issue 1). and Strathspey, is a popular destination for moth enthusiasts who live south of the border due to the This species tends to be found in houses and other presence of several local specialities. buildings, and is only active late at night. So keep a lookout just before you turn off the lights! A regular visitor to the area is Matthew Deans from Suffolk, who tries to come up at least once a Scott Shanks, Buglife year with his colleagues to sample the local moth delights. He has been known to drive all the way from Suffolk for just one night of moth trapping in Strathspey – now that’s dedication! In early April 2011 Matthew, accompanied by Paul Bryant, made a weekend trip north to look for Rannoch brindled beauty (Lycia lapponaria), Rannoch sprawler (Asteroscopus nubeculosa) and Sword-grass (Xylena exsoleta). On the first evening they found Sword-grass, the next day Rannoch brindled beauty and then that evening Rannoch sprawler. Their target species were in the bag, so to speak, and the weekend was an unqualified success but things were going to get even better! Pink prowler (Oonops domesticus) © Bob Dawson Late on the evening of April 9th, while checking Page 2 Five new parasitoid wasp species for Scotland! Scottish Invertebrate Discoveries Cont. The findings of two recently published studies The majority of the species detailed in the above (Schwarz & Shaw (2011) Entomologist’s Gazette papers are thought to be solitary parasitoids that 62: p175-201; Schwarz & Shaw (2010) attack and develop as ectoparasitoids (develop Entomologist’s Gazette 61: p187-206) have outside the host body) within the cocoons of moths highlighted how little we currently know about parasitoid wasp species (Hymenoptera) in the UK. and other insects – including other parasitic wasps – and the puparia of flies. However, a The publications present new number of this group are information on the distribution, endoparasitoids (develop inside the taxonomy and life history of host body). Species of parasitoid 153 species of the wasp are usually host-specialised. Ichneumonidae subfamily Parasitoid wasps always kill their host, Cryptinae that were identified which is consumed alive by the following analysis of almost parasitoid larva in many cases 4,000 specimens from the (especially by endoparasitoids) National Museum of Scotland’s though most ectoparasitoids develop collection. 39 of the species on a host paralysed by a sting from identified were new to Britain (many Scottish specimens) and Newly described parasitoid wasp the female before she oviposits. (Stibeutes blandi) © Mark Shaw seven of these were new to Solitary development (one per host) is Note: These species look extremely science. Five of the newly usual in Ichneumonidae, though in similar to each other and cannot be some other groups gregarious described species were identified without specialist development (several wasps per host) recorded from Scotland knowledge and equipment (Tropistes scoticus, Orthizema is common. So little is known about francescae, Stibeutes blandi, Theroscopus the biology and host associations of parasitic horsfieldi and Theroscopus mariae). The 5mm wasps that anyone rearing them (especially from long black and orange Stibeutes blandi is currently seldom reared hosts) could be onto important new known from just one specimen collected by Keith discoveries. Please don’t discard them! Bland at 820m on the Cairnwell in Perthshire. Mark Shaw and Scott Shanks The Mysterious Worms of the Leadhills worms”, moving together in a purposeful manner. By rearing the larvae to adults in 2010 it was confirmed that these are Sciara militaris, a fungus gnat. The population in Leadhills is particularly interesting as they appear regularly in a garden, early in the morning during the summer, moving along gravel paths, and have been doing so for the past 15 years. There have been a couple of reports from elsewhere in the UK of “army worms” over the past few years, which have all been from commercial coniferous forest. There is forestry near to Leadhills, but it would take a considerably long time for the larvae to crawl their way to the garden. These larvae are reported more ‘Army’ of Dark-winged fungus gnat larvae commonly from Europe, particularly Germany and (Sciara militaris) © Louisa Maddison eastern countries. It may be that they have come A chance mention of a local phenomenom to a to the UK via forestry operations, and when council employee resulted in the discovery of a conditions suit the populations expand and move, mysterious occurrence in Leadhills, South allowing them to be seen. So keep an eye out for Lanarkshire being reported to the local Ranger these creepy crawly columns! Service. It looks eerie from a distance – like a Louisa Maddison, South Lanarkshire Council very slowly moving snake skin! Up close these Countryside Ranger Service long, thin columns are actually made up of hundreds of tiny grey larvae known as “army Page 3 Scottish Invertebrate Discoveries Cont. The Grampian Spider Group is grateful to SNH for funding the purchase of spider identification books Grampian Spider Group tongue-twisting rediscovery! that Group members have access to through a partnership with the Woodhead & Windyhills The bend-bearing blunt-brow spider (Silometopus Community Trust, and to the University of incurvatus) is found on sand dunes and amongst Aberdeen School of Biological Sciences for the use dune vegetation on the coasts of the northern half of laboratory space and microscopes for its of Britain.