J.0 I N T Institute of NATURE inaes. Terrestrial CONSERVATION COMMITTEE WY Ecology Lis 4!!1 • 4. 7 Provision Mel Cryptopha • •-4 ariinae —) • (Coleoptera) 9 :t. of Britain Of:; ( Si•th•Aili • ••:.•• r'f• r t•tt k, • C010?-1. :I 4. • •• -1 • • ft • •0 •‘-',4- Åk• I • • • ) •• • • • •••• Tr—Astss" • . r :—• is.:.••: • is d ..•• 2 z • • . • : Eel 'tar. • • • ••• • Natural Environment Research Council Printed in Great Britain by Dixon Printing Co Lid eNERC Copyright 1993 Published in 1993 by Biological Records Centre Institute of Terrestrial Ecology Monks Wood Abbots Ripton Huntingdon Cambs PE17 21$ ISBN 1 870393 17 I The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology 0 fl) is a component research organisation within the Natural Environment Research Councit The Institute is pan of the Terrestrial and Freshwater Sciences Directorate, and was established in 1973 by the merger of the research stations of the Nature Conservancy with the Institute of Tree Biology. It has been at the forefront of ecological research ever since. The six research stations of the Institute provide a ready access to sites and to enviromnental and ecological problems in any part of Britain. In addition to the broad environmental knowledge and experience expected of the modem ecologist, each station has a range of special expertse and facilities. Thus, the Institute is able to provide unparallelled opportunities for long-tenn, multidisciplinary studies of complex environmental and ecological problems. NEundertakes specialist ecological research on subjects ranging from micro-organisms to trees and mammals, from coastal habitats to uplands, from derelict land to air pollution. Understanding the ecology of different species of natural and man-made communities plays an increasingly important role in areas such as monitoring ecological aspects of agriculture, improving productivity in forestry, controlling pests, managing and conserving wildlife, assessing the causes and effects of pollution, and rehabilitating disturbed sites. The Inmitute's research is financed by the UK Government through the science budget, and by private and public sector customers who commission or sponsor specific research programmes. NE's expertise is also widely used by international organisations in overseas collaborative projects. The results of rrEresearch are available to those responsible for the protection, management and wise use of our natural resources, being published in a wide range of scientific journals, and in an rrEseries of publications. The Annual Report contains more general information. The Biological Records Centre is operated by 1TE, as part of the Environmental Information Centre, and receives financial support from the joint Nature Conservation Committee. It seeks to help naturalists and research biologists to co-ordinate their efforts in studying the occurrence of plants and animals in the British Isle s. and to make the results of these studies available to others. Biological Records Centre joint Nature Conservation Committee Institute of Terrestrial Ecology Monlcstone House Monks Wood City Road Abbots Ripton PETERBOROUGH HUNTINGDON, Cambs PEI 7 2LS Cambs PEI I JY 04873 (Abbots Riplon) 381 0733 62626 i INSTITUTE CF TEIRESTP::AL ECOLOGY .:. i L13:::A:IY CE-i-C.::CE EDU LABOPI:-.D• BLIS1-1ESTA-rE, MIDLOTHIAN EH:23 CQB Provisional atlas of the Cryptophagidae-Atomariinae (Coleoptera) of Britain and Ireland Colin Johnson (Manchester Museum) Edited for the Biological Records Centre by Paul T Harding and Julian C M Dring Biological Records Centre NERC Institute of Terrestrial Ecology Monks Wood Huntingdon INSTITUTE OF TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY V / 71.-:,'‘,1 I r: 1(4cE13 1)93 Citation information: Johnson, C. 1993. Provisional atlas of the Cryptophagidae- Atomariinae (Coleoptera) of Britain and Ireland, edited for the Biological Records Centre by P T Harding and J C M Dring. Huntingdon: Biological Records Centre. CONTENTS Page Preface 5 Introduction 6 Check list 8 The data 11 Distribution maps and species accounts 13 Coverage map 13 Genus Caenoscelis Thomson 16 Genus Atomaria Stephens, subgenus s.str 19 Genus Atomaria Stephens, subgenus Anchicera Thomson 36 Genus Ootypus Ganglbauer 62 Genus Ephistemus Stephens 63 Vice-county map 64 Distribution records 65 Genus Caenoscelis Thomson 65 Genus Atomaria Stephens, subgenus s.str. 66 Genus Atomaria Stephens, subgenus Anchicera Thomson 71 Genus Ootypus Ganglbauer 80 Genus Ephistemus Stephens 81 Appendix 1: Vice-county symbols 82 Appendix 2: Collector abbreviations 84 Acknowledgements 87 Bibliography 88 Species index 90 á PREFACE Atomariinae beetles are rather based upon personally studied different from most groups of specimens. The permanent insects which hitherto have been collections of our museums, with mapped. They are neither their rich material going back to the conspicuous to the public, nor start of last century, have provided popular with the average collector. a major source of data which On the contrary, almost all species enable recent captures by myself are less than two millimetres in and others to be placed in historical length, and live such secretive lives perspective. It therefore seems that specialised collecting appropriate to dedicate this Atlas to techniques are needed. If all collectors, living or departed, decaying substances are seived, whose painstaktng fieldwork has some species can be rather produced the specimens upon abundant insects. Many hundreds which it is based. The Atlas also of individuals may be found, for breaks new ground in its inclusion example, living and breeding in of a special section on distribution garden compost heaps. Adults and records. There has long been a larvae of most species probably need for this kind of information to feed on fungal hyphae and moulds. be generally available in our literature. The small size and often slight differences between species, as Publication of this Atlas was only well as the incomplete state of made possible with assistance from knowledge, means that the staff of the Biological Records identification of Atomariinae will Centre. I would especially like to always be difficult. Accepting thank its head, Paul Harding, for his published records from even the administrative and editorial help; primary scientific literature is also Val Burton and Julian Dring for fraught with uncertainty in such data processing and data circumstances. My own approach management respectively. is that of the specialist and taxonomist, where records are Colin Johnson September 1992 5 INTRODUCTION The family Cryptophagidae Identification and keys (including Hypocopridae) is a group of Clavicom beetles, 103 species of A milestone was reached when which are currently known from Sj6berg (1947) published his Britain and Ireland. These obscure studies on the nordic species of the beetles are relatively small in size, genus Atomaria. With its extensive most being between 1 and 3 mm in keys and genitalia figures, this length, and so closely allied that the paper covered not only the accurate identification of many is Fennoscandian species, but also a extremely difficult, even for the number of species from specialist. The subfamily neighbouring parts of Europe and Atomariinae may be recognised by Asia. It was in the light of this work, the antennal insertions being located and of a recent project on the on top of the head as opposed to at central European fauna (Lohse the sides as in the other subfamilies. 1967), that my own studies on In recent years the genus Atomariinae commenced. Caenoscelis Thomson has been A total of 43 species of Atomaria are transferred from Atomariinae to a now recognised from Britain and separate tribe within Ireland, which contrasts markedly Cryptophaginae (Crowson 1980, with the 30 and 31 species 1988). However, the genus is recorded by Joy (1932) and Fowler included in this Atlas in view of its (1889) respectively in their long association with Atomariinae. standard works on the British/Irish The bulk of our Atomariinae belong fauna. These differences are due to to the genus Atomaria Stephens, a number of factors. Apart from an which is divided into two subgenera. elucidation of taxonomic problems, In the subgenus Atomaria s.str. (17 additional species have been species), species are generally very recognised which were either elongated and have the antennal overlooked in the field or confused insertions close together. More in collections, whilst others are spaced antennal insertions and a more recent immigrants. Keys for much shorter body with its sides the identification of all the species more curved, in general, covered by this Atlas are to be characterises the subgenus found in the Die Kafer Mitteleuropas Anchicera Thomson (26 species). series (Lohse 1967) and its The genera Ootypus Ganglbauer supplement (Johnson 1992c). In and Ephistemus Stephens are much particular, the latter includes a new more rounded in shape, and are key to Atomaria, and the each represented by a single nomenclature in that key is followed species. here. However, many species 6 remain difficult to identify using where the openness of the terrain only keys, and may require access seems to be the most important to museum collections for factor. Thus, grassland species are comparison with named quite likely to be found in almost specimens. A list of museums any other open and non-wet habitat, whose specimens I have and it is this group of species which redetermined is given under the is especially favoured by Acknowledgements section of this agriculture and gardening. Atlas. The beetles