Invertebrate Survey
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NETHER LANGWITH QUARRY, NETHER LANGWITH, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: INVERTEBRATE SURVEY Report to WHITCHER WILDLIFE LTD AUGUST 2016 ANDY GODFREY Entomological Consultant 90 Bence Lane Darton Barnsley South Yorkshire S75 5DA Tel: 01226 384022 Mobile: 07502364511 Email: [email protected] NETHER LANGWITH QUARRY, NETHER LANGWITH, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: INVERTEBRATE SURVEY CONTENTS SUMMARY INTRODUCTION METHODS SAMPLING WEATHER CONDITIONS IDENTIFICATION RARITY ASSESSMENT RESULTS SPECIES RICHNESS AND RARITY REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE SITE ASSESSMENT MITIGATION MEASURES CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES TABLE 1: WEATHER CONDITIONS ON THE SURVEY DATES APPENDIX 1: INVERTEBRATES RECORDED FROM NETHER LANGWITH QUARRY, NETHER LANGWITH, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: AUGUST 2016 APPENDIX 2: INVERTEBRATE STATUS CATEGORIES NETHER LANGWITH QUARRY, NETHER LANGWITH, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: INVERTEBRATE SURVEY SUMMARY Whitcher Wildlife Ltd requested an invertebrate survey of land within and surrounding Nether Langwith Quarry, Nether Langwith, Nottinghamshire. The quarry is inactive and comprises quarry floor, quarry walls, cliff top and tracks with fringing woodland, areas of self-seeding woody scrub and early mosaic vegetation. A total of 207 invertebrate taxa were recorded and these are listed in Appendix 1. Five Nationally Scarce Diptera were recorded and one or two other species of possible interest were also recorded. Some of these are associated with willow or birch scrub which was frequent in parts of the site. No Biodiversity Action Plan species were recorded. The presence of five Nationally Scarce species taken on three survey visits suggests a reasonably interesting site for invertebrates. The value of the site is likely to be of regional (i.e. borough or district) status rather than at county level. The relatively bare quarry floor is of less interest for invertebrates compared with the fringing woodland vegetation and scattered vegetation above the quarry. A few general mitigation measures are provided. NETHER LANGWITH QUARRY, NETHER LANGWITH, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: INVERTEBRATE SURVEY INTRODUCTION Whitcher Wildlife Ltd requested an invertebrate survey of land within and surrounding Nether Langwith Quarry, Nether Langwith, Nottinghamshire. The quarry is mothballed and comprises quarry floor, quarry walls, cliff top and tracks with fringing woodland, areas of self-seeding woody scrub and early mosaic vegetation. METHODS SAMPLING Sampling methods included the following: Sweep netting of low-growing vegetation and scrub. This is a standard method for aculeate Hymenoptera, Diptera, phytophagous Coleoptera, Hemiptera and several other groups. Direct searching on bare ground, flower-heads, etc and including the field recording of butterflies and other conspicuous invertebrates. WEATHER CONDITIONS Weather conditions on the survey dates are provided in Table 1. IDENTIFICATION Target groups for terrestrial invertebrates have been identified which are considered by the surveyor to be good habitat indicators. These include Orthoptera (grasshoppers and allies), Odonata (damselflies and dragonflies), shieldbugs and grassbugs, selected Coleoptera (beetles), butterflies, day-flying moths, selected Diptera and selected aculeate Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps). These have generally been identified to species. Vouchers of rare and uncommon species have been retained. All material was collected by and identified by Andy Godfrey. RARITY ASSESSMENT One aim of the survey was to establish if there are any invertebrate species of high nature conservation interest present on the site such as UK and local Biodiversity Action Plan species, IUCN, Red Data Book and Nationally Scarce species. A list of UK BAP invertebrates may be viewed on the UK BAP website at www.ukbap.org.uk. A number of species were added to the UK BAP list following a review in 2006/2007 and these species were added for research only. These are generally widespread but rapidly declining moth and butterfly species which were identified as declining by Butterfly Conservation. These species can be sill frequent and widespread. In general, the same species are listed with little change in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) and in the National Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006. Rarity statuses such as Red Data Book, Nationally Scarce (previously Notable) and Local have been developed and heavily used by Natural England, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and associated organisations and are defined in Appendix 3. Since 1995, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) categories has been adopted by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee as the new standard for Red Lists in Britain. JNCC aims to work towards assessing the status of all native species against standard criteria based on the internationally accepted guidelines developed by the IUCN (see IUCN, 2001, 2003). Only a few taxonomic groups have been given IUCN codes but these include the water beetles (Foster 2010) and Diptera belonging to the Empidoidea (Falk and Crossley 2005). RESULTS SPECIES RICHNESS AND RARITY A total of 207 invertebrate taxa were recorded and these are listed in Appendix 1. Five Nationally Scarce Diptera were recorded. One or two other species of possible interest were also recorded. These are summarised below and brief comments on their ecology, status and distribution are provided. No Biodiversity Action Plan species were recorded. Nationally Scarce Beris fuscipes Stratiomyidae Aulogastromyia anisodactyla Lauxaniidae Homoneura patelliformis Lauxaniidae Homoneura thalhammeri Lauxaniidae Tetanocera punctifrons Sciomyzidae The soldierfly Beris fuscipes has been widely recorded throughout southern England, extending up the west coast, Wales, north-west England and into western Scotland. The typical habitat is damp woodland and adjacent fens and marshes especially in calcareous soils. On the Continent, larvae have been found under the bark of a tree trunk lying in a spring. This species may have been swept from woodland edges surrounding the site and may develop within the wooded areas outside the survey area. The lauxaniid Aulogastromyia anisodactyla has a scattered distribution throughout England extending into Scotland and Wales. It is normally associated with woodland edge, rides and clearings, but has also been found in open scrub. The early stages are unknown: larvae of this family are generally believed to develop in decaying vegetable matter including fallen leaves. This species was probably swept from the woodland edges surrounding the site. The two Homoneura species, H. patelliformis and H. thalhammeri also have a scattered distribution throughout in England. They are most commonly found by sweeping scrub, isolated shrubs, trees and adjacent tall herbage or coarse grasses and show a preference for sallow and other Salix species. H, thalhammeri was only recognised as British fairly recently and the differences in terms of ecology, and distribution has yet to be worked out. As with Aulogastromyia, the early stages are unknown but other members of the family feed on decaying vegetable matter. The Homoneura species were swept from outwith and within the quarry and probably off Salix species. The snail-killing fly Tetanocera punctifrons has a widely scattered distribution throughout England and has also been recorded in Wales and Scotland. It is associated with wetlands, especially damp woodland, also riverside situations, damp heathland and coastal marshes. The larvae probably develop as predators or parasitoids of gastropod molluscs, but it is unclear whether aquatic or terrestrial species or slugs or snails are used. In the surveyor’s experience, this species is often found away from wetlands and so terrestrial snails and/or slugs may be used. The tree bumblebee Bombus hypnorum was recorded on the survey. This species was first recorded in Britain in 2001. It is given a high score in the ISIS database produced by Natural England but it is not uncommon and cannot be considered to be of high nature conservation value in the surveyor’s opinion. One or two other species are worth mentioning. Larvae of the sawfly Cimbex femoratus were recorded by sweeping self-seeding birch. Most Cimbex species are scarce but sawflies have not been given scarcity statuses by natural England. The birch sawfly Cimbex femoratus is local and not very common according to one website consulted. The chloropid Trachysiphonella scutellata is listed as Notable in Falk (1991) but has been downgraded in a more recent unpublished review. This species is typically associated with pioneer habitats such as neutral or basic grasslands and the larvae may be associated with ants. The invertebrates recorded are dominated by those associated with grassland and scrub matrix along with those associated with unshaded early successional habitat, rich flower resources, scrub edge, permanent wet mire, and occasional species from the arboreal canopy, flowing water, mineral marsh and open water and wood decay (the species list for the site was imported into natural England’s ISIS software which uses invertebrates to assess whether statuary sites are in favourable or unfavourable condition. REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE The Nottinghamshire Biodiversity Action Plan (Taylor 1998) lists invertebrates of conservation concern in the county. None of the species listed were recorded from Nether Langwith Quarry. The Nottinghamshire BAP list is relatively poor for invertebrates and tends to concentrate on the better known invertebrate groups such