Atlas of the Dragonflies of Britain and Ireland
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á Cover photograph: Aeshna juncea Insets: Cordulegaster boltonii and Anax imperator (Photographs R Thompson) JOINT \ Institute of NATURE CONSERVATION Urrestrial COMMITTEE DEPARTMENri of ARTS. CULTURE sai cbr GAELTACHT 7 Ecology INSTITUTEOF TERRESTRIALECOLOGY LIBRARYSERVICE EDINBURGHLABORATORIES BUSHESTATE, PENICUIK MIDLOTHIANE26 OGB Atlas of the dragonflies of Britain and Ireland ITE research publication no. 9 R Merritt, N W Moore and B C Eversham Centre for Ecology and Hydrology London: HMSO Natural Environment Research Council @ NERC Copyright 1996 ISBN 0 11 701561 X Published in Great Britain by HMSO The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) is a component research organisation within the Natural Environment Research Council. The Institute is part of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and was established in 1973 by the merger of the research stations of the Nature Conservancy with the Institute of Tree Biology. It has been at the forefront of ecological research ever since. The six research stations of the Institute provide a ready access to sites and to environmental and ecological problems in any part of Britain. In addition to the broad 'environmental knowledge and experience expected of the modern ecologist, each station has a range of special expertise and facilities. Thus, the Institute is able to provide unparallelled opportunities for long-term, multidisciplinary studies of complex environmental and ecological problems. IIL undertakes specialist ecological research on subjects ranging from Micro-organisms to trees and mammals, from coastal habitats to uplands, Emil derelict land to air pollution. Understanding - the ecology of different species of natural and man-made communities plays an increasingly - important role in areas such as monitoring ecological aspects of agriculture, improving productivity in forestry, controlling pests, managing and conserving wildlife, assessing the causes and effects of pollution, and rehabilitating disturbed sites. The Institute's research is fmanced by the UK Government through the science budget, and by private and public sector customers who commission or sponsor specific research programmes. ITE's expertise is also widely used by international organisations in overseas collaborative projects. The results of I1E, research are available to those responsible for the protection, management and wise use of our natural resources, being published in a wide range of scientific journals, and in an ITE series of publications. The Annual Report contains more general information. The Biological Records Centre is operated by PIE, as part of the Environmental Infomiation Centre, and receives financial support from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. It seeks to help naturalists and research biologists to co-ordinate their efforts in studying the occurrence of plants and animals in Britain and Ireland, and to make the results of these studies available to others. INSTITUTE OF TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY B C Eversham LIBRARY Environmental Information Centre Biological Records Centre SERVICE Institute of Terrestrial Ecology Monks Wood , Abbots Ripton 13FEB1996 HUNTINGDON, Cambs PE17 2LS REF- Tel: 01487 773381 Fax: 01487 773467 5-06, 1-3XJ-1) CONTENTS Foreword Preface vi Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Checklist 2 The British and Irish Odonata in a European context 6 History of recording 7 Fieldwork and data management 14 Methods of recording 14 Description of data set 15 Coverage 24 Species accounts and maps 25 Introduction to the species accounts 25 Resident species 28 Species recorded in the Channel Islands but not in Britain or Ireland 110 Immigrants and accidental species 111 Possible additions to the British and Irish dragonfly fauna 113 Seasonal occurrence 115 Previous representations of flight periods 115 Current data and future studies Main and outlying flight periods 115 Regional variation in flight periods 121 Future recording 122 Dragonflies and nature conservation 126 Literature and references 132 Sources of information 132 Larval identification 132 References used in this Atlas 132 Appendix 1 Glossary 140 Appendix 2. List of plant names 147 Index to species 148 á FOREWORD Having been on the fringe of the work leading up to My colleague, Brian Eversham, has devoted the preparation of this Atlas has enabled me to see considerable time and energy to work on the data the fruits of formidable amounts of work being for dragonflies and has been able to make some harvested, processed and refined into a satisfying initial analyses for this Atlas, together with preparing result. Like a good wine, it has the subtleties of its some of the text. component parts, which the discerning user will be able to detect, but it also provides a complete and It is my personal pleasure that the Atlas of rewarding whole. dragonflies has now been published after so much work by all concerned, including, of course, the The Atlas is a prime example of the collaboration cohorts of volunteer recorders. I have strong between volunteers and those employed to compile memories of working with all the personalities data for research and conservation. National mentioned above, but particularly with the three dragonfly recording began within the Insects authors, so that to pick up this Atlas will bring me a Distribution Maps Scheme in 1968. This Scheme host of personal recollections. was set up by the Biological Records Centre (BRC) and was administered by the late John Heath, Quite apart from my own pleasure in this volume, I assisted by Mike Skelton. Progress was slow am confident that it will prove to be as significant a because of the absence of a readily available stage in the study of dragonflies in Britain and identification guide. However, in 1977 Basil Harley, Ireland as were the publications of Dragonflies in then of Curwen Press, masterminded the 1960 and The dragonflies of Great Britain and Ireland publication of a well-illustrated guide by Cyril in 1977. It places the fauna of these islands on Hammond. This publication made a recording record in such a way that it is now possible to relate scheme truly viable and has remained in print ever the distribution of our species to their occurrence in since, in an edition revised by Bob Merritt and several other western European countries where published by Harley Books in 1983. similar studies have been undertaken. The data summarised in the Atlas are held at BRC and will be When David Chelmick took responsibility for put to a wide variety of uses, especially in research organising the Scheme in 1977, recording was and nature conservation. already beginning to increase, but his energy and his enthusiasm were soon to influence a growing I now look forward to seeing further results from the number of recorders. By 1979, the second edition of recording effort of the last 20 years and to new the Provisional atlas, edited by David, showed recording to provide fresh insights into the ecology considerable improvement on the earlier edition and distribution of these impressive and captivating (1978) which had been edited by John Heath, but insects. based on the work of Mike Skelton. In 1981 Bob Merritt succeeded David Chelmick as Paul T Harding scheme organiser. Over the next nine years Bob Biological Records Centre devoted enormous energy and personal rrEMonks Wood commitment to the Scheme and has continued to February 1995 foster a level of interest in this group of insects which would have been unimaginable 20 years ago. Above all, Bob has ensured that the standards of recording are the very highest. The excellence of the quality of the data held at BRC and summarised in this Atlas is almost entirely due to Bob's thorough knowledge of the dragonfly fauna through his extensive fieldwork in Britain and Ireland, and to his meticulous checking of records before their submission to BRC. Norman Moore's involvement with the preparation of this Atlas is particularly welcome. Norman was joint author of the much sought-after early New Naturalist volume Dragonflies, and his influence on the study and conservation of the group has become apparent over the years, both at home and overseas. PREFACE The purpose of this book is to sumrnarise the publication of this book - to Paul Harding, head of information gathered from the Recording Scheme BRC, for his help and support; to David Chelmick, set up a quarter of a century ago at the Biological my predecessor as national scheme organiser, for Records Centre (BRC) to record the distribution of laying the foundations upon which the Scheme was British and Irish dragonflies. In addition to built; to Colm Ronayne, who took over discussing the present and changing status of responsibility for Irish records in 1983; to Steve species, their distribution in relation to their habitat Coker, Tony Fox, Betty Smith, Lee Thickett and requirements, and to reviewing some of the more Noelle and (the late) Tony Welstead, who were important historical records, it provides an appointed regional recorders in 1987, for their opportunity to indicate some of the other uses to contributions up to and since that date, and for which the information is being put. helping me to transfer a large quantity of museum and field survey data to BRC record cards; to Few of the people who submitted their records to Philippa Adams for her help with this task also; and BRC in the late 1960s and early 1970s could have to Steve Charn, David Clarke, Alan Hold and Brian envisaged the comprehensiveness both of the maps Nelson, additional current regional recorders, for