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Volume 4 Issue 1 April 2013 Welcome to the seventh issue of issue includes features Scottish Invertebrate News! on Ash die-back disease and the potential effects After a long cold winter, spring on Scottish Invertebrates, an finally appears to be here with article on Medicinal leeches and queen bumblebees, hoverflies and lots of updates, surveys and butterflies active once more! events to keep you busy bug- It’s time once more to begin hunting in the year ahead! planning bug-hunting trips to find Happy bug-hunting this spring wee beasties. and summer! As well as new discoveries, this Biodiversity surveys Another key in 2012 at Trees for observation was the Life’s Dundreggan first European Estate in Glen record of a biting Moriston, near Loch midge in the genus Ness revealed eight Atrichopogon new invertebrate feeding on a species never cranefly (Helius recorded before in longirostris). the UK. The rich variety of It also brought the life at Dundreggan total number of highlights the vital species recorded on importance of this woodland site to Juniper aphids (Cinara smolandiae) on juniper conservation work, over 2,800. © Alan Watson Featherstone and of protecting Newly discovered species include the sawfly and enhancing habitats across the Highlands. Nematus pravus, the Juniper aphid (Cinara The discoveries not only demonstrate that the smolandiae), two species of aphid parasitoids estate is a special site for biological diversity – Ephedrus helleni and Praon cavariellae, three they also reveal that there is still much to learn species of fungus gnats Brevicornu parafennicum, about Scotland’s biodiversity. Mycomya disa and Sceptonia longisetosa, and the Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life mite (Ceratozetella thienemanni). www.buglife.org.uk Tel: 01786 447 504 @buzz_dont_tweet Photo credits: Narrow-headed ant © Gus Jones, Flame shells © Calum Duncan, Great yellow bumblebee © Martin Scott (RSPB), Thick-legged flower beetle (Oncomera femoralis) was found, of all places on the window sill of my Below are a few house in June 2012. It is possible it interesting beetle had ventured over from sightings that I have woodland that is only some 30 recorded in Scotland metres from my house. I had during 2012. also ‘sugared’ the side of my On the 4th of May, while shed a few nights previously investigating dead wood so this may have been a factor in a disused industrial site for its appearance on my in the village of Bowling, window sill. I have since near Glasgow, searched said woodland for (NS437736), two pupae the beetle but to no avail. were discovered and O. femoralis is a Notable B taken home. A few days species and this record is the later both pupated as the first published record of this Thick-legged flower beetle (Oncomera femoralis) click beetle, Denticollis © Roger Key beetle for Scotland in nearly linearis (Linnaeus, 1758) eighty years. This was verified Though Denticollis linearis is common in England by Graham Rotheray at the National Museums and Wales it appears to be scarce in Scotland. Collection Centre in Edinburgh on checking the The second of my interesting findings is the rove Scottish Insect Records Index (SIRI). beetle, Scaphidium quadrimaculatum (Olivier, The other record was published in the Annals of 1790). This was also found in dead wood at the Scottish Natural History in 1935. The recorder was same site as mentioned above on the 2nd May. A.R. Waterston and he found it in 1934 at Abbey Though this beetle is fairly widespread in England Craig, Stirling. and Wales it has been determined as “a very rare I would like to thank everyone that helped with and localised species in Scotland” by Alex information on the above-mentioned beetles. Ramsey who wrote an article on said beetle in the Coleopterist (Vol.8 Pt 2, p91). Chris Sullivan The third and last beetle is the most interesting; a [email protected] confirmed by Martin Rejzek who also commented that it was the first When out visiting a cleared example of this species area of conifer plantation he had seen in 12 years. about 6 miles south east of West Calder (NT065592) on This record is the 20th of June 2012, I considerably further collected a Long horn beetle south than those shown (Family Cerambycidae) that I in Twinn and Harding’s hadn’t seen before. As is Provisional atlas of typical with this family I longhorn beetles (1999). found it feeding on Hogweed (Heracleum spondylium). The NBN Gateway (2012) shows only one I identified the beetle as the Three-banded longhorn (Judolia sexmaculata) record for England (that Nationally Scarce Notable A © Chris Sullivan has since been species the Three-banded confirmed as wrong) and one record for Wales. longhorn beetle (Judolia Chris Sullivan sexmaculata). This was later [email protected] species is now less acutely threatened with development. This old tree nursery site has been found to support a high invertebrate interest with The distinctive Bee beetle (Trichius some notable and UK BAP priority species, including fasciatus) has been exceptional numbers of the fly described as a real Conops quadrifasciatus that Highland and Welsh has larvae that are speciality. According to endoparasites of bees. the Highland Biological While the adult Bee beetle is Recording Group this found on flowers such as beetle has recently had thistles, the larval stages a poor season. depend on dead wood. This Despite this there is the case for many appear to have been a invertebrates including large number of and striking beetles such as stag beetles and longhorn observations in low Bee beetle (Trichius fasciatus) © Hayley Wiswell ground in Badenoch beetles. and Strathspey. A Gus Jones, Badenoch & Strathspey Conservation July is a good month for searching for this Group endearingly furry bumble bee mimic as records recently collated by the Highland Biological The Cairngorms are an amazing hotspot for Recording Group indicate. biodiversity, but species such as the Freshwater pearl mussel, Narrow-headed ant, Red squirrel and Since the establishment of the Cairngorms National Park some areas supporting this beetle Capercaillie are under threat from development. have been lost to development, including recently, Please help protect this important area by donating a site near St Vincent’s hospital in Kingussie. to the Safe guard the Cairngorms Appeal http:// A disused tree nursery at Nethybridge near Dell www.safeguardthecairngorms.org.uk/. Wood National Nature Reserve that hosts the (long-winged) form of the Common groundhopper (Tetrix undulata f. macroptera) in the The Slender groundhopper Common groundhopper Cairngorms. This form is very similar to (Tetrix subulata) has a UK (Tetrix undulata f. macroptera) the Slender groundhopper, and further distribution concentrated in the © GusJones research is required to confirm the South East of England. So it presence of T. subulata at the site. It was a surprise to find this may be that other populations of Slender groundhopper in the Cairngorms groundhopper have been overlooked, in 2008 (reported in British but Strathspey is currently the only Wildlife 2008 20, 2). This first location for this species in the north. find in the Cairngorms National This macropterous form of Common park was at the edge of groundhopper is very rare in England, woodland threatened by but appears frequently in Strathspey. development at Boat of Garten. In 2010 a lowland heath site with An illustrated identification guide to the a large population of groundhoppers of Badenoch and groundhoppers was discovered Strathspey is available: http:// near the proposed new town of www.bscg.org.uk/media/groundhoppers- An Camas Mor. of-badenoch-and-strathspey.pdf. Send any records to the Orthoptera Recording The identification of the Scheme: www.orthoptera.org.uk groundhoppers at this site has been complicated by the Gus Jones, Badenoch and Strathspey discovery of a rare Conservation Group macropterous an area of approximately 75 hectares and is thought to contain at least 100 million Flame shells. This is the biggest of 8 known Flame shell sites in Scottish waters. Flame shells group together on the sea bed, binding together gravel and other shells to create a living reef that can support hundreds of other species. The discovery highlights how little we actually know and understand about our coastal waters and the diversity of marine species living just off shore. By identifying these pristine habitats and creating a network of protected marine areas, it may be possible to reverse or at least buffer some of the damage caused by destructive practices Flame shells (Limaria hians) © Calum Duncan such as trawling and over fishing. A Marine Scotland survey of Loch Alsh, between Skye and the mainland in 2012 has discovered Scott Shanks, Buglife ( Watts Claudia © Ringlet what may be the world’s largest colony of Flame hyperantus Aphantopus Shells (Limaria hians). The survey was carried out for Marine Scotland by researchers at Heriot-Watt University who were investigating potential new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Flame shells are named for their spectacular bright orange tentacles that emerge when feeding. The huge reef of Flame shells in Loch Alsh covers ) The 2012 Scottish Entomologists’ Scottish record of the host-specific Gathering (SEG) was held in Fife parasitoid wasp Scolomus borealis, (13th-15th July) and attracted 25 that emerged from a caterpillar of invertebrate enthusiasts for a fun the Blackberry skeletoniser moth weekend of bug-hunting, (Schreckensteinia festaliella). exploration, socialising and Two beautiful Ruby-tailed wasps swapping field-craft tips. Chrysis ignata (s.s) and w Pseudomalus auratus were some Everyone has been busy over the of the loveliest finds in the dunes of winter finishing the identification of Tentsmuir Forest NNR. specimens or extracting records The 2013 SEG will meet at from their notebooks, and I can Dundonnell in Wester Ross (just reveal that an impressive 322 south of Ullapool) on the 28th-30th invertebrate species were recorded Ruby-tailed wasp (Chrysis ignata) of June.