IO February 1993 rooroooRECORITS ON COMPUTER. ONLTA MILTION TO GO! In SepLember 1992 Leicester Museumwas asked what number of records were kept in the Biological Records Centre. This was a very difficult guestion to answer but we came to a very rough estimate of. 420,000 Leicestershire records of 9,000 species. This does not include approximately 750,000 records associated with specimens in the collections! Of the 420,000 records, approxinately 120,000 refer to about 4,000 species of invertebrates. Group No Records No specres Rcl.d1* remtrcs Conputerised Dragonflies 4,760 zl 100 Orthoptera 104 11 9s Heteroptera 366 104 20 Beetles 38,323 1,556 98 Lepidoptera 7,902 800 20 Hoverflies 1,952 125 100 t'tillipedes 861 34 90 Harvestmen 879 21 100 Woodlice 2,405 21 80 Molluscs 2,270 116 70 Totals 59,722 2,809 hi Nearly 100,000 species records are data base developed at the Museun. now indexed on BIOSPIN, a comPuter eontd p2 Computerlsed records the Museum and take on a group is welcome to contact us. tle are contd particularly anxious to receive help with Lepidoptera and nolluscs These records are much more but, obviously, you are free to accessible than paper records for follow your own interest, many different types of analysis such as mapping, sj.te evaluation, Recently we have begrun to accept phenology etc. They are also much records on computer discs directly easier to count! The table on the fron recorders. He1en Ikin and front cover of this Newsletter Adrian Russell have each sent us shows the number of computerised over 2,000 records of dragonflies species records for each and Lepidoptera respectively. As invertebrate group as at January more recorders start using PCs at 1993. home, this will become an increasingly useful and painless Beetles have the largest number of way of exchanging records. computerised records but the Lepid- optera will overtake them as more For further information on BIOSPIN records are entered into BIOSPIN. and species records please contact However, the best covered group so me on Leicester 473031. far is the dragonflies with an average of over 200 records per Derek Lott species. To date, records have been computerised for a specific purpose. For example, dragonfly records were originally comp- Too slow! uterised in order to contribute to a national At1as. Recently the records have been updated for the Quick forthcoming Museum publication on Splat Leicestershire dragonflies. How about that Beetles have been covered in order Never mind to provide data for evaluating It got away survey results. This means that the limited staff resources of the Quick, guick Museun have been allocated to That was nearly it special target groups. But never mind It got away The target groups amongst the invertebrates have been beetles Biff, biff (Derek Lott and Jeremy woodhead), f take a huge swiff molluscs (John Mathias) and, more But I miss recently, dragonflies (Steve Hit the tripod Grover) and lepidoptera (Nona And it flew away Finch, Jane McPhail and Peter Thompson). Biff, biff Another swiff A large number of groups, however, The generator knocked out have been covered by enthusiasts. And it would not stay They have come into the Museum and spent a great deal of time and Swipe, swipe effort sorti.ng and checking records With all my might before entering into BIOSPIN. I'le What a calamity are grateful to Helen fkin ft got away (dragonflies, Orthoptera), Neil Frankum (hoverflies), Ingrid Birker Swipe, swipe (millipedes) and Jon Daws At the speed of light (woodlice, harvestmen) in this What a pity respect. David Hemsley and Liz It did not pay Poxon have also cone in as Oh I'll get one like it another volunteers and helped with data day ! entry. Roy McPhail (l2yrs) Anyone who would like to come into Diptera in 1qg2 1992 proved to be quite a good year for the Diptera with several species turning up that I had not seen for a few years, both at home (see separate item in this newsletter, p9) and elsewhere in Leicestershire. Prior's Coppice The sunny weather on the MaY field larger Brachycera. Scenopinus meeting at Prior's Coppice brought fenestralis, the window fIy, was out the hoverflies. Twenty specles recorded for the first time as was were seen including DasYsYrPhus the soldier f1y Oxycera rara. venustus artd CheiTosia variabil-is. Several specimens of the latter, PTatycheirus tarsaJis btas fairly both male and female, were seen numerous along the rides. The best over a period of a few weeks, records of the day were not usually basking in the sun on the hoverflies, however. The beeflY, plants around the pond. Bonbylius najor, was seen flYing around the flowers along the main A single example of Strationys ride near to the new coPPice Plot. potanida $ras seen in Augrust, being Several fIy larvae were seen under only the second record for the the bark of a fallen tree trunk. garden of this spectacular soldier One of these was taken and reared fly. Another soldier fly, through and proved to be the RDB2 Pachygaster Leachii, which I had dead wood sPecialist SoLva only previously seen as the narginata. occasional dead specimen, ltas seen on a number of occasions duringr the Lea Meadows/Lount Meadows sunmer, often five or six at a time. The June field meeting to Lea Meadows $tas again blessed with And finally, in November, the sunny weather. An impressive total identification of three specimens of 29 hoverfly species r.tas seen on taken at the September 1991 field the reserve and on the roadside meeting at the Grantham Cana1 verges of Polly Botts tane. The (Plungar) were confirmed by Alan best of these was a male of the Stubbs, the national hoverfly nationally notable Neoascia experE,. These were Anasinyia genicuJata. This was ftying around Jineata, A contracta and A the marshy area in the south transfuga. The first has only been western field of the reserve. recorded a few times in Other flies seen included the Leicestershire and I know of no asilids Diobria tufiPes and previ.ous records for the county of Leptogaster cylindtica, and the the other two species. extremely large craneflY TiPuTa naxina. Neif Frankun CJipshan Big Pit/Charnwood Lodge A week later CliPsham Big Pit provided guite a contrast in habitat. The old guarry had large areas of bare ground with Patches of vegetation starting to invade, the ideal habitat for the hover- f ties Parargius haenorrhus and TrigTyphus prinus. The latter is a nationally notable species. The Augnrst meeting at Charnwood Lodge was not as Productive mainlY because of the dull weather. Knighton At home it was a good Year for the Insect recording in the far north-lYCSt Members may be interested to hear what Pat and f have managed to discover about the insect life of this part of Sutherland, now that we have survived a whole season! Nedd during which we record any aspects of the fauna that we can identify. To set the scene, I should exPlain Insect groups that come into this that Nedd, where we 1ive, is a category include dragonflies, small settlement on the winding grasshoppers, beetles, butterflies coast road between Lochinver and and moths. What I should like to Kylesku. Our house is situated on do in this article is to summarise half an acre of former croft our observations of the last two pasture land. This land, which groups during 1992. provides seasonal gtazing for ewes and lambs, occupies some 60 acres ButterfJies in the vicinity of Nedd. The grassland is studded with rockY Our knowledge of the butterflies is outcrops, often bearing trees. based largely on sightings of adults with just a few vanessid On the north-east face of the high larvae. There are two limiting ridge which shelters much of Nedd factors: our competence in from the prevailing south-west- identifying species in flj-ght and erlies there are extensive areas of the vagaries of the weather, since woodland. This woodland is mainlY it is often windy even when the sun oId coppiced hazel but includes ID VUL. substantlal amounts of birch and rowan, sma1l stands of asPen and I{e logged 75 records of 12 occasional oak, hollY and bird butterfly species in 1992. Perhaps cherry. The shrub laYer, such as the most unexpected was the clouded it is, is provided bY eared and yellow, one of which occurred in conmon sallows or indeterminate our garden in May and another 900ft hybrids between them. up Quinag in September. By all accounts 1992 was an annus Much of the rest of the townshiP of nirabiLis for the species in Nedd, which covers some 1481 acres' Scotland. Our records of whites is "hi11-grazing", moorland and bog are curiously sparse, just one interspersed with numerous rockY Iarge white in the garden in JuIy crags and outcops, rising in pJ-aces and a couple of green-veined whites to over 500ft. There are, however, elsewhere. However, crops of further considerable areas of cabbage and its relatives (other woodland, dominated bY birch (Part than turnips) are few and far of the Ardvar Woodlands SSSr) and between and the small white is, patches of former neutral grass- anyway, rare this far north. The land, now invaded bY bracken. large white was probably an There is a sea frontage of more immigrant and although lady's than a nile on the west side of smock, the likeIy foodplant of the Loch Nedd, which we overlook. The green veined, is common, a nurnber township includes the whole or part of possibles went unconfirmed for of nine freshwater lochs, including lack of a net and the effort Gorm Loch Mor which is over a mile necessary to catch them! long.