Beetles (Coleoptera, Ceram Bycidae) of Britain
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JOINT Institute of NATURE CONSERVATION m\ ilz ip>.* Ter r e str ia l COMM ITTEE Ecology Provisional atlas of the longhom -beetles (Coleoptera, Ceram bycidae) of Britain P F G Twinn •and P T Harding Cent re for Ecology and Hydrology Natural Environment Research Council C NERC Co pyright 199 9 Printe d in 199 9 by Henry Ling Ltd., The Dorset Press. Dorche ster, Dorset. ISBN 1 87 0393 40 0 The In sti tut e of Ter r estr ia l Eco lo gy (ITE) is a component research organisation within the Natural Environment Research Cou ncil. The Institute is part of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology , and was established in 1973 by the merger of th e research stations of the Nature Conservancy wah the Institute of Tree Biology, It has be en at the forefront of eco logical research ever since . The six research stations o f th e Institute provide a ready access to site s and to environmental and ecological problems in any part of Britain. In addition to the broad environmental know ledge an d expe rience expe cted of the mod ern ecologist, each station has a range of spe cial exp ertise and facilities. Thus, the Institute is able to provide unparallelled oppo rtunities for long-term, multidisciplinary stud ies of comp lex environmental and ecological prob lems. ITE u ndertakes specialist ecological research on subjects ranging from micro-o rganisms to trees and mammals, from coastal habitats to up lands, from derelict land to air pollution. Understanding the ecology of different species of natural and man-made communities plays an increas ingly important role in areas such as monitoring ecological aspects of agriculture, improving p roductivity in forestry , co ntrolling pests, managing and con serving wildlife, assessing the causes and effects of pollution, and rehabilitating disturbed sites . The Institu te's research is financed by the UK Government through the science budget, and by private and public sector customers w ho commission or sponsor specific research p rogrammes. ITE's expertise is also wide ly used by internationa l organisations in ove rseas collab orative projects. The results of ITE research are available to th ose responsib le for the protection, manage me nt an d wise use of our natural resou rces, be ing p ublished in a w ide range of scientific journals, and in an ITE series of publications. The Annual Report contains more ge neral information. The Biological Records Centre is operated by 1113, as part of the Environ mental Information Centre, and rece ives financial support from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. It seeks to help natuialists and research biologists to co-ordinate their efforts in study ing the occurren ce of p lants and animals in Britain and Ireland, and to make the results of these stud ies availab le to othe rs. Pu blished B iolog ica l Records Cen tre Ins titute of Tetm stria l Ecology Mo nks Wood Abbots Rip ton H u n ti ng don Cant& PE1 7 2 1S Tel: 0 148 7 7733 8 1; Fa x 0148 7 77346 7; Wit htlp:// w w w .n m ut a c.uw ite I T E BUSH 18 MAY 1999 LI BRARY Provisional atlas of the longhorn beetles (Coleop tera, Ceram by cidae) of Britain P F G T winn (Llanover, Gw ent) w ith text co mpiled and edited by P T Harding (Biological Records Centre) Biological Reco rds Centre Institute of Te rrestrial Eco logy Monks Wood Abbots Ripton Huntingdon Cambs PE17 2LS .2.LL) Ith Citation informatio n: Tw i n n , P F G & H ard in g , P .T. 1999. Provisional a tlas of the long horn beetles (Coleop tera, Cera m bycidae) of Brita in . Hu ntingd o n: Biological Records Centre . Printe d in G re at Brita in by He nry Ling Ltd ., at th e Do rse t Pre ss , Do rch este r, Do rset. CON TEN TS Introduction 5 Life history and habits 5 Origins of the British cerambycid fauna 5 A declining and threatened group? 6 Accidentally introduced species 7 About the A tlas 7 Species cove red by th e scheme 8 Limitations of the available data 10 Recording ce rambycid larvae 10 Future cerambycid recording 11 Nome nclature and status of British Cerambycidae 12 Interim check list of British Cerambycidae 12 Status 20 Distribution maps and notes on species 24 Literature sources 24 Notes on coverage ma ps 25 Notes on species distribution ma ps 25 Coverage map s 26 Species distribution maps 29 Ackn ow ledgeme nts 89 Bibliog raphy 90 Appendix 1 — Sou rces of records 94 Species ind ex 95 á IN TR OD UCTI ON Cerambycida e, otherwise know n as longhorn beetles or cerambycids, are han dsome , relatively large and , in ma ny cases, colourful beetles. Abo ut 60 of the estimated 20 000 world sp ecies are considere d to be native or naturalised in Britain although the true status of some sp ecies is rather unce rtain . At least 150 ad ditional sp ecies have been reco rded at some time in Britain as a resu lt of accidental introductions, often in association w ith imp orted timber, but have never become established here . A few of our native and naturalised species are suffi ciently distinctive to have acquired English names (Hickin 1987) although they are not wide ly use d . Life history and habits In co mm on w ith mo st insects, cerambycids sp end mo st of their life cycle as immatu re stages (e gg , larva an d pupa) w hich may last two or mo re years. Most British ce rambycids, in th eir immature stages, are associated w ith living or dead wood of trees an d shrubs. They sp ecialise in a particular part of the plant - from roots to small twigs or dead wood and are kn ow n to develop in more than one species of host plant. A few species, notab ly Ag ap a n th ia villosov irid escens and Phy toecia cy lind rica , fee d in robust herbaceo us plants, esp ecially thistles and umb ellifers. Most methods for fi nding ceram bycid larvae can be very destructive of ofte n scarce habitat, such as dea d wood , an d should be avo ide d w herever possible . Although adult ceram bycids usually live for only a few weeks, mainly to feed and reproduce ,,they are often easy to fi nd in favo urable co nditions. Most species are diurnal an d active in warm weather, w he n they can mo st readily be found on the fl owers of he rbaceo us plants, such as umbellifers and haw tho rn ( Cra ta eg us spp .) by sweep ing or beating . A few sp ecies, su ch as Prion us coria rius, are cre puscular and/ or no ctu rnal and w ill come to artifi cial light. Because most of the British cerambycids are associated with woody material as larvae , are as with or near trees and sh rubs are likely to be the mo st productive for ad ults. Oviposition sites vary considerably w ith the species, including tree bark, cracks in old wood, shattered ends of fallen bran ches, old larval eme rgence holes, dead and rotten wood and even in soil. O rigins of t he Brit ish ceram bycid fauna By virtu e of its geograp hical position, Britain is on the western edge of the Palaearctic ran ge of many taxa . For most groups of insects , the to tal number of sp ecies recorded as native to Britain is sign ifica ntly less than th at recorded in western parts of co ntinental Euro pe . In the case of ce rambycids this is particularly no ticeable : Britain's 62 presume d native species is roughly half th e numb er that occu r in north ern France (over 110 species) (see Speight 1988) . When co mpared 5 with that of Britai n, the cerambycid fauna of Ireland is even more impoverished, with only 21 presumed native species (Anderson, Nash & O'Connor 1997). Speight (1988) discusses the possible causes of this progressive reduction in the numbers of cerambycid species at the western edges of Europe. He concluded that a range of factors, including the geographic ranges of host plants, climatic conditions and habitat modifi cation and loss, have conspired to limit the number of cerambycid species in Ireland, and, to a lesser extent also in Britain. Our presumed native cerambycicl fauna consists of three major, but overlapping, biogeographic elements: • a boreo-monmne group which occurs mainly in Scandinavia and the major mountain ranges of central Europe (egJudolia sex maculata); • a central and southem European group which does not extend into northern Scandinavia (eg Dinop tera colla ris, Gramtnoptera ruf icorn is); • a mainly western and southern European group (eg Anoplodera f ulva). There is no representative in Britain of a distinctive southern European or Mediterranean group . Perhaps the most unusual species to occur in Britain is the latest addition to our cerambycid fauna, Tetrops starkii, which, according to Bense (1995) otherwise occurs no further west than western Germany, but it may have been overlooked until recently. A few species have become established in Britain as the result of accidental introduction, the most extreme example being the highly polyphagous Trinoplaylum cribrattun. It originated in the Indian sub-continent and, according to Bense (1995), is not known to occur elsew here in Europe.