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Issue 1 Spring 2003 Het News nd 2 Series Newsletter of the Heteroptera Recording Schemes Editorial: Welcome to the first issue of the new-format Het News. We hope this newsletter will be a means of sharing news and information about land and water bugs, stimulating interest, discussing problems, & answering queries. We also hope that it will be as informative, entertaining and readable as the Heteroptera Study Group Newsletter, so well compiled by Peter Kirby. The intention is to produce two issues a year, hopefully in spring and autumn. The scope will doubtless vary but we plan to include both regular features and ‘one-offs’. It goes without saying that any contributions, formal or informal, will be greatly appreciated. So if you visited somewhere fascinating or noticed sometihing interesting, put pen to paper (or whatever you use) and share it with the rest of us. Photos are welcome. Distribution will be primarily by e- mail, in colour, but for those with no e-mail facilities black-and-white printed copies will be available. This first issue has a strong aquatic emphasis, to complement publication of the provisional aquatic atlas, but in general we aim to achieve a balance between land and water bugs. Sheila Brooke 18 Park Hill Toddington Bernard Nau 15 Park Hill Toddington Dunstable Beds LU5 6AW Dunstable Beds LU5 6AW [email protected] [email protected] Contents Editorial .................................................................... 1 Gadget corner – Micronecta net ..............................5 Provisional Atlas of the British aquatic bugs........ 1 Site focus – Orford Ness..........................................5 Aquatic Hets — what next?..................................... 2 Web focus..................................................................6 Land Hets update .................................................... 2 Obituary - Antti Jansson ..........................................6 From the Regions – Nepa at light trap .................. 3 Recent literature – 1999-2003 ..................................7 Bug focus – Gerris gibbifer..................................... 3 Bibliography of Het News 1st Series(pt.1)...............9 A Micronecta story, so far....................................... 3 The Provisional Atlas of the British aquatic bugs. Congratulations to Thomas Huxley on the publication unpromising looking canals & ditches can harbour. of the Provisional Atlas of the British aquatic bugs. If We succeeded in finding 10+ spp in SP81, mostly in you do not have your copy of the Atlas it is available the Aylesbury arm of the Grand Union Canal and a from: few spp in a new village pond in SP72. A trip to Fulbourn Fen in Cambs, TL55, was equally CEH Publication Sales, CEH Monks Wood, Abbotts rewarding, if not more so. In a seemingly desolate Ripton, Huntingdon, Cambs, PE28 2LS arable landscape we found 3 spp of Gerris ( gibbifer, £8.00 including p&p. thoracicus, & lacustris) in a shallow trickle at the Tel: 01487 772400 Fax: 01487 773590 bottom of a deep ditch, sharing the water with a Email: [email protected] grass snake. We added to our bug species in field dykes, a flooded hollow and a fishing lagoon. G. It is fascinating to look at the species distributions argentatus in the marginal vegetation of the fishing and consider the empty squares! We (BSN & SEB) lagoon, brought our Gerris count to 4 and total list to did this then headed for some unrecorded 10km 9, not a huge number but satisfactory considering squares near home. These were not endowed with the unpromising landscape. great water bodies, but it is amazing what even Sheila Brooke ******************** Het News Spring 2003 1 Aquatic Hets ............................. what next? • Pete Kirby and I have put together draft Sheila Brooke updated illustrated keys covering all the British species. Pete did the species in the front half of I have started entering records onto R2002 S&L, I did those in the back half (Miridae although I have not dismissed MapMate and may onwards). On request, I can provide by email (in eventually use both. ‘pdf’ format): (i) my draft checklist, (ii) the I will be happy to receive your records, preferably Miridae keys (iii) the keys to the wetland/aquatic by e-mail on spread sheet but if you do not have the species. This is a free service in return for facility to do this then Record Cards will be fine. The feedback on problems encountered, desirable information required at the very least is date, additions/changes, etc. location, grid reference, vice county name or • Pete and I have been working on ‘son of S&L’, number, recorder & determiner, as well as species a BENHS project, in between earning our names, of course. It would also be useful to have respective livings. The current situation is that I some habitat information such as a brief description have photographed most of the species to of the water body, including approximate size, flow, provide the required illustrations, usually from vegetation, substrate and altitude where appropriate. fresh material. In addition to the above- We have been looking into redesigning and updating mentioned keys, Pete has written the species the Record Card and may, in due course, send it as accounts for his species and I am part-way a PDF file for comments & trial. through mine. The biggest remaining task is I do not yet have the Provisional Atlas data but editing the photographs. The timescale to hope it will be available soon. I will then, hopefully, publication is, realistically, not less than two be able to answer any queries you may have about years. water bugs in your area. • ‘Shieldbugs and allies’ are receiving additional attention. Roger Hawkins is working on a ******************* volume on these, for the Surrey Wildlife Trust series. This will comprise text, Surrey distribution map, and colour photograph for each Land Hets ........................................ update species – essentially all the British shieldbugs Bernard Nau and • Coreids. This is due to go to press this autumn. Back in 1984 I took on the role of Organiser of the Also, I am working on a publication covering the Terrestrial Heteroptera Recording Scheme, on a same group of species but aimed at a rather care & maintenance basis. My role was to check different audience. This is for the Field Studies record cards as they came in, for accuracy & Council’s successful ‘Identification Guide’ series completeness, and file them; in addition I of glossy laminated fold-out colour guides. This identified/confirmed specimens. There was little too is likely to appear during the next twelve prospect of an atlas since there were no resources months. for computerising the records. In any case, with • The 1984 BRC Terrestrial Heteroptera S&L(1959) out of print, increasingly expensive, and recording card (RA 57) is considerably out of increasingly out-of-date, there was a lack of a readily data and I plan to issue a new card as soon as available identification guide so records submitted the new nomenclature is available for the became correspondingly sparse. The situation is remaining species. currently as follows: • I also have in mind the possibility of a • The publication of four of the five volumes of ‘shieldbug & Coreid’ card. The idea being that, the Catalogue of Palaearctic Heteroptera although these species will be on the main card provides up-to-date nomenclature which now as well, they can be ‘marketed’ separately to enables us to ‘talk the same language’ as Coleopterists and others (e.g. Continental heteropterists. We just need the last orchid/butterfly/dragonfly ‘twitchers’) who notice volume, which will deal with the shieldbugs etc., these attractive insects and will have the the and this seems likely to appear in the next year means to both identify and record them. Do you or so. think this is worthwhile? The species list for the British Isles has grown • Notwithstanding the existence of the above from the 509 (plus a few ‘un-numbered’) treated • mentioned recording cards I would much prefer in S&L, to 576 on the checklist I maintain for my that recorders submit records by email, in own use – give or take a few, depending on computerised form. The time needed for a where one draws the line on very rare vagrants, recorder to enter records into a computer and introductions. Mike Wilson (Nat. Mus. (whether using spreadsheet, word-processor or Wales, Cardiff) is working on a checklist of the database) is about the same as that to write out Hemiptera, which will include a definitive a card and the job does not have to be redone checklist of the Heteroptera. (with new typos) by someone else in order to S&L is now readily available on CD at a modest • produce distribution maps and other reports. I price. speak from 18 years experience of computerising my own field records. Het News Spring 2003 2 From the Regions .................. S. Hampshire Bug focus ............................ Gerris gibbifer Sheila Brooke Water-scorpion at mercury vapour light Martin Harvey* We thought it worth selecting a different bug in each issue and making some comments about it, e.g. identification, habitat or just interesting On 4 April 2003 I was running a mercury vapour observations. For this issue the choice is: moth trap in my garden, in Colden Common, near Gerris gibbifer Winchester (South Hampshire). The total of 19 It has a fairly patchy distribution, found in various species of moth was a good one for the time of types of water both acid and neutral and sometimes year (it was a warm night), but I was even more at high altitude. It is not found in Ireland and there intrigued by the discovery of a water-scorpion Nepa are only a few Scottish records. cinerea on the sheet directly underneath the trap. I have had a population in my small garden pond Southwood and Leston (Land and Water Bugs of for 2-3 years and have noticed that this largish bug is the British Isles) say of N.

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