NEWSLETTER 54 LEICESTERSHIRE January 2016 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY
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NEWSLETTER 54 LEICESTERSHIRE January 2016 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY VC55 Peppered Moth Biston betularia - last instar larva feeding on Sallow at the end of September. Photo: Gianpiero Ferrari. National Moth Recording Scheme update Regional and National Verification Panels will be established to support county Micro-moth Recorders and to help ensure the integrity of records entering the The National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS), scheme. Essentially, this will provide a three-tier operated by Butterfly Conservation, has been system for verification that will hopefully prove more established for nearly a decade and has been found to straightforward in practice than initial data flow be extremely successful. After consultation with diagrams indicate! Verification guidance notes are to existing micro-moth recording schemes, it has recently be produced, which are to be welcomed and which been announced that the NMRS will be extended to should help ensure consistency of approach across the incorporate micro-moths. country. It is also hoped that this guidance will document instances where published identification One fundamental difficulty with regard to micro-moth criteria are no longer considered reliable by relevant recording is the verification of records, particularly as national experts. many micro-moths are difficult or impossible to cont’d on p. 3 identify from photographs. It is therefore proposed that LES Newsletter 54 January 2016 Editorial My thanks go once again to our “regular” contributors. If you are not one of those then please consider Affiliated to: submitting something next time. Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust “Think small” Chairman & LES Occasional Publications Editor: Ray Morris refers to the eye-opening variety of Ray Morris invertebrates that turn up in Malaise traps. Another 16 Hinckley Road, Dadlington Leics. CV13 6HU way to see a surprising range of creatures is to use Telephone: 01455 213569 some magnification - some of the most startling Email: [email protected] invertebrates cannot be appreciated (or even detected) with the naked eye. I have just spent a weekend peering Secretary: down the microscope at small invertebrates that live Anona Finch 14 Thorndale, Ibstock, Leics. LE67 6JT in leaf litter, among moss and in the soil. This was a Email: [email protected] workshop laid on by the Field Studies Council at their Preston Montford Field Centre (Shropshire). The focus Treasurer: was Springtails (Collembola) but we found that the Stuart Poole participants were enthusiastic about the other groups 18 Croft Drive, Wigston, Leicester LE18 1HD Telephone: 0116 288 0236 to be found in similar habitats: spiders, mites, Email: [email protected] centipedes, beetles, woodlice and so on. Committee Members: Springtails, in case you had not noticed, are the most Dave Budworth abundant hexapods in many habitats - hundreds of 121 Wood Lane, Newhall, Swadlincote thousands per square metre have been reported. Why Derbys. DE11 0LX have you not been tripping over them? - they are very Telephone: 01283 215188 Email: [email protected] small: just a millimetre or two long (there are a few giant species up to 6 mm). Yes, they do have springs Maggie Frankum on their tails, which they use to jump out of harm’s 3 Chapel Lane, Knighton, Leicester LE2 3WF way. They come in a variety of shapes and colours - Telephone: 0116 270 5833 Email: [email protected] some are attractively marked. There is no Collins Field Guide to Springtails (nor is there ever likely to be one) Peter Patrick but identification resources are beginning to appear in The Hollies, Holly Street, Stapenhill, Burton on Trent, print and on the web. Needless to say, a microscope is Derby DE15 9ET Telephone: 01283 548704 essential, better still, two (low power binocular and Email: [email protected] high power compound, to get beyond family level). Newsletter Editor: A search for springtails will inevitably turn up mites. Steve Woodward These eight-legged mini-beasts are related to spiders. 19 Highfield Road, Groby, Leicester LE6 0GU We found one specimen with wings (!), one with spiky Telephone: 0116 287 1679 legs and knobbly knees, one resembling a hamburger Email : [email protected] and another that folds itself like a pocket-knife. Mites Publications downloadable from: were pretty much impenetrable, with no www.naturespot.org.uk/content/leicestershire- comprehensive key, or even a checklist, let alone any entomological-society illustrations of species. Once again, things are changing - a “test key” to families is now available (http://tombio.myspecies.info/ SoilMitesKey) and a Facebook Community is set up The editor will be happy to receive articles, short notes (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Soil-Biodiversity- and photos (in focus please!) about insects or other UK/) where photos can be posted. arthropods in Leicestershire and Rutland, also news of members’ activities further afield. Photos to be sent A microscope opens up whole new worlds - all LES separately please at high resolution. Unless otherwise credited, photos are by the author of the article. members ought to have one (or two). Next Copy Deadline: 5 Sep 2016 Steve Woodward 2 January 2016 LES Newsletter 54 It should also be remembered that one important output the Common Blue Enallagma cyathigerum) do turn up from NMRS, a national atlas of the UK's Larger Moths but no dragonflies. Caddisflies are not often found is planned to be published in 2017 and that 2016 is the with nearly all RW records coming from the cut-off year for records. With this in mind, I will be Rothamsted light trap instead. Macrolepidoptera producing up-to-date distribution maps for VC55 in include examples of butterflies and moths although the the spring of this year, which should hopefully help numbers encountered are not high. direct efforts to fill in gaps in our knowledge - e.g. there are still plenty of very common species of In contrast, the malaise does give large catches of macro-moth that have not been recorded from certain Diptera and Hymenoptera of a bewildering variety. under-recorded 10 km squares. The addition of 25 new Many of these cannot be identified at present because garden moth recorders in 2015 should also greatly help the skill is not available in county or the keys are in with increasing our knowledge of the distribution of need of substantial updating to be usable by amateurs. species across the county. However, some groups are being pursued with vigour! Records are now accumulating of Syrphidae Adrian Russell (hoverflies), Stratiomyidae (soldierflies), Tabanidae (horseflies and clegs) and some Dolichopodidae (all Ray Morris) as well as Tipulidae (craneflies, John Malaise Musings Kramer). A county rarity, the cranefly Dictenidia bimaculata, turned up at the end of June 2015 (see John Kramer’s article on p. 8). In 2014 a malaise trap was run at two sites at Rutland Water NR with a further two sites in 2015. The aim Recognition of Hymenoptera is presently limited to is to try and develop an understanding of the bees and wasps (Steve Woodward & Helen Ikin) but invertebrate fauna of the reserve and the use of a not the so-called “parasitica” wasps (of which there passive trap enables a wide variety of species to be are many) with the beginnings of sawfly sorting just caught and examined without the potential starting. Amongst the Hemiptera, some identification depopulation effects of traps that use attractants. The is being carried out (Dave Budworth) but as many Malaise does not necessarily catch all insect groups specimens are small and at different stages of with reputably the beetles usually being very poorly development this is very time consuming. Plecoptera represented unless a water trap is positioned beneath. (stoneflies) and Mecoptera (scorpionflies) are few but However, it seems that smaller species are frequent, in are being identified as are the occasional particular Staphylinids. Similarly, the Odonata seems pseudoscorpions and lacewings (all Steve Woodward). to be very limited although a few damselflies (mostly Identification of the Coleoptera is presently covering rove beetles, pollen beetles and almost any other that Graham Finch can key out. Lepidoptera fall under the gaze of Adrian Russell who also manages the traps at RW. Where identification of some species requires specialist examination, the pseudoscorpions for instance, these are referred to a national expert. Inevitably, accumulation of records from the malaise samples takes time as determiners have other obligations. Slowly a reasonable database is starting to emerge. For instance 7 species of soldierflies have been identified along with 19 hoverflies and 3 tabanids. The number of species may seem low but it is early days and as traps are run at different locations more variety should be forthcoming as the microhabitat changes with each trap location. In addition not all the 2015 samples have yet been examined and many groups remain a challenge. Malaise samples are an excellent way in which to become familiar with the lesser studied groups and there is always room for more volunteers to pursue them! A Malaise trap intercepts insects flying by, which instinctively fly upwards into the “roof” and end up in the catching pot (top right). Ray Morris Photo: Adrian Russell. 3 LES Newsletter 54 January 2016 Hymenoptera and Dreaming Spires awkward specimens. These are the ones that we have struggled to identify, either because we cannot work the key, or because there is no reference specimen in Our entomological activities have taken us to Oxford our local collection at Barrow-upon-Soar. So when we several times in the last couple of years. We are learned that the 2015 AGM was also to be held at beginning to know our way around the city, the Oxford in October, we made a plan to tackle our bookshops and the excellent bus network. backlog. We arrived at the museum a day early, having arranged access to the collections to study their The Oxford University Museum of Natural History aculeates and compare them with our Leicestershire (http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/index.htm) is the focal specimens.