THE COLEDPTERIST'S N·EWSLET:TER: .... ;; ·'· . ' . ~ . ·.· ... _: .- ..::, ·· .. _· : ..~ November; 19~6 .. Hunber 26 . ':.. \ . .. _:_ .· ·.·; .· .. ~ •. ; :With. ;the: _fin,al "Newsletter" .for the year it is. on~e ' . ~ aga_i11·ny, duty. to remind readers. that .the suba~ript.i~n. • • . • • • • • • • • • : • t • • .._ :. • • ,_.~ ; ~ -, . ..... .· . .' ~ . for 1987 .i.s:. due •. The good news is that .there y~ll b.e ~-o . ' . ~: incr~a~e ... i.n _the subseripti,on _ra:te. '· : .\ . _:J>l,ea.~e .. -'~~kf) o~eques_ payable.· to ,"Co~eopterist_' s . ~ .. r{ew.f:!l,et.tf)r" . aQd. send to Peter Hodge, ~ I!arvard Road . ' . .1 Ri-ngrner,: Lewes, . "Ea,st Suss_ex~ BN$ 5HJ as· e~oon a_s . .... : .. eonv:~nient~.Y possible. Thanking yo~ for your suppor:t . ~ ' ,.. Jonl;lthan Go.oter. ,._ ,~ •, .' ._ .. ; :.-· -·::· -· .' _'_ ·_ BREEDING ANTHRtBUS RESINOSUS (SCOP.}. :. ;.I :h~v~.:-~~und this. very rare weeyil in· nol"th Oxfordslii"·r~; ,·, .:• . ~ . ~ . ... ~. at.-J;~r~e fiites (}\lite. close to Banbury where L live. T~e · · beetle- waf:! not. record~d on th~ .old Viot~ria c~unty Hi:dt~;y .. · .: . - . .. ~ . ~ . .. ' :- list~ofGColeopte~a for Oxfordshire, but David Sheppard . .. ' . .. found it a few years ago hibernating in an old hornet's 1;1es·t in·_ _.f/y_ohwood. For~ st. I: found the beetle in Aprfl ~1984' :-;,, ·.; . ·- . _under ol~.as~-bark and John Parry kindly gave me so~ details of its life history. Upon examining a large ash log with plenty of Daldinia fungus on it, I dis~overed about 15 adult beetles and decided to have a go breeding thee. 2 I collected pieces of bark with Daldinia on, (the reddish brown fresh fungus is best) and placed these in an aquarium covered with metal gauze together with about 10 of the adults. The beetles were seen to be mating during May and before long I found the typioal "C"-shaped weevil. larvae inside the fungus. Plenty of fungus is needed as the adults eat it as well. There never seemed to be nore than-one larva in a piece of fungus, perhaps they are carniverous. The. iarvae grow q.uickly: and are ready. to pupate at the end of June or early Jtily. l: discovered 'that· they would not pupate in the bark, bu~ ~hnd~red a~ourid lodking iost~ ~he larvae eat their way out of -the fungu's 'through the bark- and seek wood in which· to tunnel ·and pupate. tt· is· essential, .I ~ .. ·. found, to have a 'pfece of ·ash log' on. whi.ch :to place 'the bark~. this needs to be only a few inches i~·dia~eter,· but with-this underneatb ·'the ·bark· tlie larvae ·will quite :h~ppi'ly bore ·in:to· · · it and pupate, "enierging through a second hole in two or three weeks. My first adults emerged on July 25th. This weevil is rare and hard to catch as it has the habit of dropping to the-·ground and -playing ..dead for.. e. .. l~ng_ ·: time. ·It_oay.be often ~asier for Coleopterists to find fungus during M:ay·and June with the larvae in and breed the adults· . out. ~he above ri6t~~ ~iil p~~haps be of use~ It is essential· to keep the fungus dampened; damp peat at· the bottom of the· . container will help to c<:m·serve noisture • . '· .. .. ~ i . •·t • :' - -. David copestake, 22 Meadow Way, ... r ,.• Banbury·, Oxfords hire, · OX16 9SR ' .. ' •. I I. 3 AN IDEAL COUNTY LIST ? .A county list of. Col.eoptera is essen~ially a sumnary .of .all ·the ,data relating to the beetles of a given county. An enormous anount of information is required to write such a catalogue, both i~ terns of species data and background inf_orqation. Such information can be divide~ into·a series of subj e_c_t headings and I have attenpted to briefly outline e~ch one in turn. I nust ~tress that ~~ese are personal views a~d are not ceant to debase the etforts of those who have produced such valuable county _lists in the _past. 1. Area of Study. Descr~b~ the area and define the boutid~ries (e~g. v.c., Adcinistrative County) and present a :series of oa~s showing relevant features. These would include: the najor towns or cities, as a guide to foreigners, the major­ collecting areas, perhaps as part of a topographical,: geological or land-use nap,. other Bajor landscape featu~es~ TJ:lere is no shane in producing a list froo less than a··· county, so long as it.is honest~y presented as such. Ju~t look at the 126 pages of Donisthorpe's "A Prelininary List of the Coleoptera of Windsor Forest" (1939) -and that·was· not even definitive! 2. ·Sources of Infornation. · There are hundreds of irolunes of published books and journals that would need to be searched as part of the construction of a conprehensive list. Fe~ people, otitside Lond~~' ~ave· access to all of then. A list of those searched should be :p~esented, togeth~r •ith ihe date-span of those consulted (eg EntoGologist 1900-1969; Ent·omologi~t 's Monthly Magazine·· 1930 to date). Any nantis~ript: so~rc~s shduld also be· ·stated, together with their date-~pan and lricati~n (e.g. T.J.Bold diaries 1843-1868 Natural History Society of Northunberland, Hancock r.1useun, Newcastle-u:pon-Tyne). 4 3. Nonenolature. State which oheok-list is being used and any up-dates whioh have b'een incorporated. (E.g. IGoet & Hincks (2nd edition) 1977 and ·aiilElend.tJents as publ i she·d in "Ant'enna" vel unes 1-9, 1977~8:5). 4. Status. There are tuo cooponerits of status: abundance and distribution. A species nay be widespread in the county, but only present in snall numbers throughout. AlternativelY, a species nay be found in only a very restricted area, but be present there in very large nunbers. The terninology used should be defined. The following is sugf,ested: Resident -. species established as breeding colonies (e. g. forner resident, current resident, tenporary resident. resident re-inforced. by oigrllt.ion). Migrant - species which nay breed here, but are dependant on regular replacenent fro3 elsewhere. V.agrant - species caught in the wild but which only usually occur in sone distant place and is not known to be nigratory. Introduction - species known to have been brought into the area by nan. Sinilarly the following definitions are suggested for terns of distribution: Ubiquitous - occurs throughout the county in all situations. Widespread - occurs throughout the county in a variety of habitats~ Local - occurs patchily, probably restricted by habitat requirecents. The following definitions are suggested for.teros of abundance: Abundant - 101+ records; Frequent - 51-190 records; Occasional - 21-50 records; Scarce - 11-20 records; Rare less than 10 records. The latter two, since 1970. .,.. 5 The tern "comJon" should be avoided. It is a tern of dispersion, not of abundance. A species night be com~<Jn to wo~dland, but nay not ~e particularly abundant ther~. Phras~s such as 11 looally ·conLon 11 are neaningless and should be expressed core accurately as "locally abundant" or cocoon to habitat x. 5. History. .. The history of beetle coll.ecting in the county should be out- lined together with notes about extant collections and nanu­ scripts. A brief biography of the najor colleotnrs nr at least their collecting aotivitie~ in the county should be . given. Always try to give the full na~e and years of birth and death for each person tJentioned (e.g. Thooas John Bold., (1816-1874)). 6.Localities. The best~worked localities should be described, especially if they have changec'or no longer exist. All the· localities· oentioned in the text sho~ld be listed as a gazeteer together with grid references, vice-counties and the initials of the · collectors who·worked the area. 7. Coverage~ A oap showing.the geographical spread·of records, and pref~rab_lY.. ,th~ _intensity of recording is essential. This not only shows how thorough_the recording has been, but highlights those areas still awaiting investigation. : : 8. Acknowledgeoents. Everyone who has personally helped the author should be individually acknowledged, as should all institutions e.g~ libraries, nuseuns etc·whose resources have been Cf'lnsulted. !). Cont.ents. A contents page at the beginning of the work is essential. 6 10. Index. A species index should be included. We have not all nenorised the sequence in the Check-List. The following inforoation is requ~red for each species recorded froo the county. History - The date and details of its first capture in the co·unty and references to all published records for the coun~y, with sone indication of the naoe by which it was recorded if that differs froo the naoe used in the list. It is not necessary to include all unpublished records - hopefully there will be.too oany of then- but perhaps all the recorU.s of the rarer species could be included - or perhaps not ? Local Status - The published and uhpublished records should be sur~arised and presented on a distribution nap, with sooe differentiation b~tween recent and historical records . ' ( e.g. 3 date classes, pre-1900; 1900-:1950; 1951-date). Any changes in distribution should be given together with any changes in this over tine. National Status- A brief cor_ment .about "the. national status helps to put the local status in perspe~tive. -' . Biology - Sone indication of its biology would be useful, or alternatively, .sone reference to such infornation. Variation. -.Any regionai variation in coloration, norphology, life-cycle or phenology should be noted. The final ~ounty list will probably be surprisingly large if all this inforoation is in6luded. However, the entries for soue species will be very brief and for others so large that severe editing v.rill be necessary.