A provisional atlas and account of the craneflies of Shropshire 2007: Pete Boardman INTRODUCTION identification guide; however it does provide pointers to some of the more obvious Craneflies are probably familiar to most people as identification features. This may help the “daddy‐long‐legs”, those gangly flying insects beginner come to terms with what can seem a that come into houses on warm, late summer confusing and daunting fauna. The taxonomy evenings. Whilst this is true, it is by no way a true within the species accounts mostly follows that representation of the group as a whole, which published in Chandler 1998, however some comprises of at least 349 within Britain taxonomic uncertainties have been resolved since (www.buglife.org.uk), and approximately 17,000 then and are highlighted within ‘British worldwide (www.ip30.eti.uva.nl/ccw). Many Craneflies’ (Stubbs in prep). species are habitat specialists and as such are not normally encountered. Others are really very The status of species used is a combination of that common or abundant at certain times of the year. within British Craneflies (Stubbs in prep), © Some are indeed rare (about 15% of the total Mapmate software ( Tecknica Ltd), and that fauna are Red Data Book (RDB) (Shirt et al 1987) used in Falk (1991) and Falk & Chandler (2005). species (Stubbs in prep)), whilst others have Recording and data searches were carried out for declined due to habitat loss and particularly the Watsonian Vice County (V.C.) 40 (Fig.1). The drainage of wetland habitats (Stubbs 1992). boundary is slightly different to the political Occasionally craneflies hit the news, generally boundary of Shropshire and also includes the when the most commonly encountered species, Unitary Authority of Telford and Wrekin. Species the common daddy‐long‐legs Tipula paludosa distribution maps are displayed at 2 x 2 km (cover photo) reaches “plague proportions” as (tetrad) level using DMAP biological recording © happened in 2005 and 2006. Then the reaction is software ( A.J. Morton). generally ‘tabloid’ in nature, an example being All illustrations are by the author unless “Invasion of the winged destroyer” (Manchester otherwise stated and are not to scale. Evening News, 8 September 2005). For a fuller account of these kinds of misconceptions see Sue This publication is based upon approximately McBean’s excellent article entitled ‘Creatures in 4200+ biological records of 233 taxa. These records the news: journalism or journalese?’ in Biologist were collated from fieldwork by the author and (McBean 2006) Craneflies are harmless, indeed it others, research reports and museum specimens. is a common myth that the daddy‐long‐legs The remainder were compiled from existing would be the most poisonous animal if only it databases and historical records. knew how to use its poison! This is false as they are non‐venomous and non‐biting. Craneflies are a major food source of a number of Whixall Moss animal groups including several bats (and other mammals), fish, birds, and of course other invertebrates. Stubbs (in prep) describes these relationships in detail. Therefore it is easy to see Ironbridge Woodlands the place of the cranefly in the food web across Wenlock Edge many of our varied habitats within Shropshire. Long Mynd Clun Uplands The vast majority of cranefly species accounts in Clee Hills this book are based upon the much more Wyre Forest expansive text within the forthcoming ‘British Craneflies’ (Stubbs in prep.), unless otherwise Fig.1 – Watsonian V.C. 40 stated. Therefore this is not meant to be an 3 A provisional atlas and account of the craneflies of Shropshire 2007: Pete Boardman ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS encouragement, and Allan Dawes for regular samples from the Trefonen light trap. There are several people and organisations who I would also like to thank Tom Mawdsley for have been involved with this project from its encouraging me gently into the subject of conception or have helped through the supply of craneflies in the first place. records, access to records, funding, access permission on land, etc for whom thanks are due; Several landowners and other parties enabled I would particularly like to thank Alan Stubbs access to survey craneflies on their land. My and John Kramer (National Cranefly Recording thanks to them; Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Scheme) for help and encouragement, Steve Natural England, the Woodland Trust, the Judd, Guy Knight, Tom Mawdsley and Ian National Trust, Shropshire County Council, Wallace for access to the Liverpool Museum Lafarge plc, Hanson plc, Sir Michael Leighton, collections and archive, Dmitri Logunov for Michael Wallace, Robert Kynaston, Mr. & Mrs. access to the Manchester Museum collections and Webb, Neil Furniss, Tim Teague, Jayne Madeley, the Cyril Pugh archive, Daniel Lockett for access Jane Ellesmoor, John Barnes, Michael Dugdale, to the Ludlow Museum collection and record and Val Burton. cards, Ian Cheeseborough and Nigel Jones for lots of recording help and a boundless enthusiasm for I would like to acknowledge the financial support the invertebrates of Shropshire, Dave Barnett for and other assistance towards this project from recording help and a Wyre Forest perspective, Natural England, Shropshire Biodiversity Dan Wrench (Biodiversity Officer for Shropshire Partnership, West Midlands Biodiversity Project County Council) for help with funding and much Nurturing Nature Fund, The Field Studies encouragement as well as specimens, Mike Howe Council and the Biodiversity Training Project. (Countryside Council for Wales) for access to the CCW database and personal records, Joan Daniels Thanks to Mike Ashton, for helping with the (Natural England) for access to Fenn’s, Whixall & publication of this provisional atlas. Bettisfield Mosses NNR, records and support, Viv Geen (Shropshire Wildlife Trust) and Stephen Finally many thanks to my partner Karen for Lewis (Butterfly Conservation) for access to sites putting up with my endless absenteeism in the and records and publicising the recording project, pursuit of Shropshire’s craneflies. the Shropshire Invertebrates Group for access to records and assistance with field work, Alex Lockton (Whild Associates) for access to records, Pete Boardman encouragement, help and advice, Caroline Uff April 2007 (National Trust – Long Mynd) for access to records from the Long Mynd, Wenlock Edge and Hopesay Hill, and site access, Ron Iremonger (National Trust – Attingham Park) for site access, Rosemary Winnall of the Wyre Forest Study Group for supplying the Baveney Brook and Roxel specimens and enabling recording access at sites in the Wyre Forest, Helen Griffiths and the Shropshire Ornithological Society for access to Venus Pool (via Nigel Jones), Alison Jones (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) for putting me in touch with willing landowners, Gareth Eggar for access to Shropshire County Council sites, Sue Townsend for access to Preston Montford and for support and much 4 A provisional atlas and account of the craneflies of Shropshire 2007: Pete Boardman RECORDERS Merrifield, Ken Merrifield, Rita Miguel‐Hidalgo, Javier The following recorders and groups have been Norton, Mr. John (deceased) responsible for the records used within this Parrott, J.R. account; Potts, G. (deceased) Price, Chris Alexander, Keith N.A. Prestwood, W.V. Arnold, F.N. Pryce, David Barnett, Dave Pugh, C.H.W. (deceased) Bayliss, Chris. Pugh, Louise Bennett‐Lloyd, P. T. Redding, Sue Boardman, Pete Roger, Megan Bratton, J.H. Ruberry, Karen Brindle, Alan (deceased) Sheppard, David Britten, Harry (deceased) Bury, H. (deceased) Shropshire Invertebrate Group Cheeseborough, Ian (Blunt, A. Godfrey) Clements, D.K. (Derry, Charles Colyer, Cedric N. (deceased) (Jones, Nigel) Comerford, Jennie (Kemp, Bob) Cope, Jason (Mason, John) Daniels, Joan (Pryce, David) Davies, Howard (Thompson, Ian) Dawes, Allan Skidmore, Peter. Dean, Clive Skingsley, David Denman, David Smith, K.G.V. Drever, James Steel, Jenny Drake, Colin M. Stubbs, Alan Dyer, Anne Taylor, Mike Edwards, F.W. (deceased) Thompson, Ian Foster, A.P. Tilling, Steve Fowles, Adrian P. Twigg, H.M. Gibbs, David Wallace, Ian Godfrey, Andy Uff, Caroline Hancock, E.G. Uttley, W (deceased). Heaver, David J. Warburton, Marion Horton, Karen Watson, Glyn Howe, Elizabeth Whild, Sarah Howe, Mike Willis, Lisa Hughes, Morgan Wrench, Dan Irving, Thelma Welsh Peatland Invertebrate Survey Team Jones, Nigel (Boyce, D.C.) Kirby, P. (Holmes, P.) Kramer, John (Reed, D.K.) Lewis, Stephen Lister, J.A. Wyre Forest Study Group Lockett, Daniel (Barnett, Dave) Lockton, Alex (Bloxham, Mike) Martin, Dudley (Blythe Mick) Mason, John (Winnall, Rosemary) Mawdsley, Tom McCann, Anna 5 A provisional atlas and account of the craneflies of Shropshire 2007: Pete Boardman C.W.H. PUGH, THE FIRST SHROPSHIRE DIPTERIST C.H.W. PUGH, M.C., M.B.E., M.A., B.C.L. 1890-1973. I first encountered the name of Cyril Henry Wallace Pugh on a set of specimens of the cranefly Phylidorea heterogyna displayed in an old glass ‐ covered draw within Manchester Museum’s insect collections. These flies had been found by Pugh at ‘Whixall Moss, Salop’ as new to Britain and were there with small card labels in Pugh’s hand dated 22.8.1936. I had gone into the museum to have a look at them with a view to familiarising myself before trying to find if the species could be re‐found on Whixall Moss, or Fennʹs, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses NNR as it is known now. As a nosey sort I noticed that draws containing papers and notebooks by various collectors over the years were available for inspection and so I looked to see what else Pugh had been keen to identify. It was obvious that this had been a man completely obsessed by his hobby. A very well annotated library of Fig. 2 – Limonia nubeculosa sketch by Cyril Pugh of adult notebooks, reference books, drawings (Fig. 2) and bred from moss in 1922 (courtesy of Manchester Museum). field notebooks came to light within Pugh’s “draw”. This also included correspondence with During the Second World War Pugh was the local other dipterists, notably F.W.