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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 34 BRECKLAND - A UNIQUE HABITAT FOR BEETLES R. COLIN WELCH
Historically heathlands in Britain appear to have received little recognition as a valued habitat for Coleoptera. W. E. Sharp in his book on 'Common beetles of our countryside', probably published just after the First World War, devotes a whole chapter to moorland beetles with only a passing comment that "No doubt wide areas exist in Surrey, in Berkshire, and in Hampshire which can grow little beside heather and ling, but these expanses we must call Heaths not Moorlands". He dismisses these further by adding that "They lack much ofthe distinctive insect fauna ofthe great moorlands ofthe north and north-west". Even in Cooter's latest edition of 'A Coleopterist's Handbook' (1991) the introductory chapter on 'Collecting from sample habitats' makes no specific mention of heathland as a habitat worthy of attention at any time of the year. Webb (1986), in his New Naturalist book on 'Heathlands' states that "There are relatively few species which can be considered unique and solely dependent on heathland; many species occur in other habitats, and offen select heathland because it provides a certain ränge of physical conditions". He categorises heathland invertebrates into those phytophagous species associated with Calluna, Erica, Ulex, Cytisus and other characteristic heathland plants, and those requiring particular physical conditions, such as sandy soil, hot open spaces, or dwarf shrubs which are only available on heathland. He further stresses the general paucity of herbivorous insects on heathland plants by quoting McNeil & Prestige's (1982) findings that 100 sweeps of an ericaceous Community will yield 150-270 insects representing up to six species, compared with ten times that number of insects, of up to 20 species, from a similar sample taken from Holcus mollis grassland. Despite its apparent poor press, any coleopterist asked the value of heathland would immediately stress its importance, and Kirby (1992) lists many rare and uncommon species at risk from fragmentation of heathland habitats. However, most of the species we may regard as 'typical' of heathland are not restricted to such areas, and Morley (1908), in an early account of 'Insects of the Breck', states that "It is not so much the hope of turning up insects which are found nowhere eise that attracts the entomologist to this district, as the unusual number of generally rare kinds to be met with within a small area; they are to be found elsewhere, but at long intervals and not associated as is here the case". He goes on to add that "Commoner kinds too occur in greater profusion than in most districts ". Morley attributed the rieh Breckland fauna to "The dryness of the soil rendering their most deadly enemy, mould, comparatively non-existent". He also regarded the remoteness of the Breck, and the scarcity of farmers and, to a lesser extent, keepers as major contributory factors. Although the other contributors to this conference have discussed the flora and fauna of heathlands in general, I will limit my account to that area of Breckland straddling the border of Norfolk and Suffolk. When Morley (1897) spent ten days in the Breck in 1896 he considered that Suffolk had been "One ofthe most prolific of English Counties" (for Coleoptera) when Rev.W. Kirby
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 34 (1998)