ANTLIONS IN THE SUFFOLK SANDLINGS
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Freshwater Invertebrate Recording 2000–2001 The early part of last year went well with a good variety of records coming from visits to the Ore, Ouse, Black Bourne, Stour and Lark river systems. Extremely high water levels in the latter part of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001 have limited the opportunities for field work. It will however, be interesting to see any future effects of flooding and high flow rates on invertebrate populations. This year has also got off to a slow start due to the restrictions on movement, which we are all experiencing, due to the foot and mouth outbreak. This lack of field recording has nonetheless had a benefit in providing time for updating the FISS database and reducing the untidy pile of paper records on my desk. In the database there are currently data from some 280 sites, with about 7,000 records of individual species having been made from those sites. This totals approximately 16,000 separate records (I have noticed that in my recorder’s report for 1998 (Transactions 35: p.103) the total number of records was printed as approximately 30,000. This should have read 13000 at that time.) with many species monitored at particular sites over several years. If any naturalists, professional or amateur, have any queries about data held on the FISS database then I am pleased to do my best to answer them. Most queries that have come in the last year have tended to arrive by e-mail. Few queries have been about specific sites, most were about species distribution and information about species behaviour. Because much of the Suffolk data is posted on the internet; amateurs, professional naturalists and students have been in contact from various parts of Britain, not just Suffolk. In addition requests for information on Sigara distincta came from America, on Hirudinea behaviour from Turkey and Belgium, on Heteroptera from Thailand, and on Trichoptera from Hungary. Important records made during this past year include new sites for the leech Haemopsis sanguisuga, the corroxid bug Arctocorisa germari and the water beetle Coelambus nigrolineatus, both of the latter from Framlingham Mere. A. germari has only been recorded in Suffolk once before, in 1961. C. nigrolineatus is the first record in East Suffolk and only the second for the county. (See White Admiral 48 for further information) Another welcome find was Agraylea multipunctata, a purse-cased caddis that as stated in last year’s report had not been recorded for several years. The recent trend for increasing numbers of the Heteroptera: Callicorixa praeusta, Sigara concinna, S. falleni and S. limitata have continued this year. Species which have been sparsely recorded in recent seasons but have increased during 2000 include the Cladocera: Scapholeberis mucronata and Rhynchotolona rostrata. The Ephemeroptera have continued to be well represented, as reported last year. Centroptilum luteolum, C. pennulatum, and Baetis vernus showing good numbers in their usual locations and also being taken in some new sites. Neither Paraleptophlebia submarginata nor Habrophlebia fusca, were recorded at all this year.
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 37 (2001)
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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 37
Suffolk data have been sent to national recording schemes for freshwater Ephemeroptera (636 records) and Heteroptera (300 records). Coleoptera records have also been communicated to David Nash for his Suffolk survey. Several other orders, such as water fleas (Cladocera), leeches (Hirudinea) or caddis flies (Trichoptera) now have a growing number of records and a better idea of species diversity, but there are no national schemes currently running to coordinate data. Last year’s Transactions report resulted in more records being sent in than in previous years and I would particularly like to thank Rob Brown for his Minsmere data, Julie Pickervance for her work in Boxford, Neha Popat for her Denham Country Park report and Paul Lee for his yearly record list. Thanks also to the half a dozen other naturalists who took the time to send in observations or single records, all were useful. Hopefully this trend will continue in years to come. Major survey work will continue at Framlingham Mere as soon as conditions allow. three of the five years of the survey have now been completed, the invertebrate population is growing rapidly and species diversity increasing. Survey work is also planned at Redgrave and Lopham Fen this coming year where there appear to be very few modern records and few from earlier years apart from the Coleoptera. The Freshwater Invertebrate Survey of Suffolk website can be found at the same location as the White Admiral e-zine. - http://www.fiss.purplenet.co.uk Adrian Chalkley Freshwater Invertebrate Recorder 37 Brook Hall Road, Boxford, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 5HS E-mail: Adrian@fiss.purplenet.co.uk Phone: 01787 210 140
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 37 (2001)