HEMIPTERA RECORDER’S REPORT ADRIAN KNOWLES
I took over the role of Hemiptera recorder for the Society late in 2021, following the death of Nigel Cuming. Preceding this, Nigel had been helping me to become familiar with the group and I hope to be able to build on his recording activity in the coming years. It should be noted that my ‘job title’ ought to read “Terrestrial Hemiptera Recorder” since the many aquatic species still fall under the remit of our aquatic invertebrate recorder, Adrian Chalkley.
It has to be said that whilst Nigel was an avid field surveyor and preserver of immaculate carded specimens, he was less than enthusiastic about computerising his records so capturing much of his data will be the focus of the immediate future. He was also rather shy when it came to publishing his findings. A good deal of his collection covered north-east Essex, so on his death his private collection, including Suffolk material, was kindly donated to the Essex Field Club by his widow Marion. A volunteer with the Club, Yvonne Couch, is currently working through his collection to capture record data and I am in possession of his field notebooks which also hold a wealth of information.
Yvonne recently sent me her first batch of data, covering the ‘Heteroptera’ suborder so I thought it timely to review some of the significant species within this dataset. In 2007, Nigel discovered the ground bug (family Lygaeidae) Nysius huttoni new to Britain (Cuming 2008). It is actually native to New Zealand but has been spreading around the world through commercial trade routes. How it came to be in the RSPB’s North Warren Nature reserve will remain a mystery but entry to this country via the ports of Felixstowe or Harwich is possible. There are a number of garden centres not too far from North Warren, so importation via potted plants is a possibility.
Of course, the point of discovery may bear no relation to its origination and spread in the country. In New Zealand, it is called the Wheat Bug and can be a serious crop pest. However, at present it is most likely to be found in this country in sparsely vegetated, sandy brownfield sites, coastal dunes and heathland. It is spreading rapidly and has already been recorded in Wales, Yorkshire and the south-west.
Nigel’s collection includes numerous specimens of Megalonotus spp. lygaeid bugs but two of these are M. sabulicola. This is a rather scarce species of sandy, often coastal, habitats in southern England, where it is usually found amongst Common Stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium). Nigel’s records come from Sizewell and Minsmere, the latter site being a place where he spent a great deal of time. Scanning through the spreadsheet, another name that stands out is another lygaeid: Peritrechus convivus. Although recorded from Europe and North America, there appear to be few British records, as far as I can ascertain.
The family Berytidae includes several ‘stilt bugs’, rather like miniature stick insects at only 5–10mm long. Although several species are included in his collection, it appears that Nigel was not able to obtain specimens of two that I found at the Center Parcs holiday village in 2020. One of these, Berytinus hirticornis, used to be a great
rarity known only from Devon but in recent years it has spread along the south coast of England and now seemingly making its way northwards. It is quite easily encountered within dry grasslands in south Essex and also occurs around Colchester so might be expected to occur in Suffolk’s coastal Sandlings. However, these small, flimsy and unobtrusive insects are very easily overlooked and I generally find them with the assistance of my suction sampler. The other species is B. signoreti, which has been quite widely recorded across Britain but is similarly very easy to overlook.
Bugs in the family Saldidae are known as shore-bugs and include several species of Saldula, which are notoriously difficult to identify. One of the more distinctive species is Chiloxanthus pilosus, which has a very restricted national distribution. It is a saltmarsh species and known from scattered localities from Lincolnshire to Kent and also on the west coast in Lancashire and Cumbria. Nigel encountered it at Orfordness (and perhaps elsewhere, once his notebooks have been scrutinised).
My personal work to record Suffolk bugs is still in its infancy, but I have managed some interesting discoveries. The Breck grassland within the Center Parcs holiday village at Elveden, Thetford Forest, has yielded several interesting species. On 13 July this year I caught a specimen of the lygaeid bug Emblethis denticollis. This ground bug was not recorded in Britain until 1991 and remains scarce although it has been quite widely recorded in southern England. Like M. sabulicola mentioned above, it is associated with Common Stork’s-bill. I probably found it because I was actively scouring the Common Stork’s-bill for an even rarer bug, the Breckland Leatherbug Arenocoris waltlii. This bug was thought to have become extinct in Britain until it was rediscovered in 2011. It has subsequently been found in a number of sites in Suffolk and Norfolk. In 2020 I chanced upon it at Center Parcs whilst undertaking some general invertebrate recording. I’ve not been able to refind it since, so its status at this site is uncertain.
I receive annual updates of bees and wasps from Nigel Odin at Landguard Bird Observatory and I now look forward to receiving bug data as well. In 2020 Nigel made a nationally significant discovery with the second modern record for the damsel bug Prostemma guttula. This striking red and black bug was thought extinct in the UK since the 19th Century until 2019 when a small population was found in Kent. With Nigel’s find just a year later, one might assume that favourable winds blew animals over the channel. However, this bug is largely micropterous. In other words, it has very small and ineffective wings, which would make migration impossible. Whilst fully winged (macropterous) forms are known in Europe, this form has never been seen in Britain, although the apparent invasion event might have involved macropters, the progeny of which reverted to macropterous form?
form).
In 2024, I hope to provide a more complete review of the county’s bugs, once I have had time to assimilate Nigel’s data with existing county records. This will hopefully allow a better understanding of local rarities.
References
Cuming, N. (2008). New to British Isles: Nysius huttoni White, 1878. Het News (Spring 2008) 11: 10.
Adrian Knowles, Jessups Cottage, London Road, Capel St Mary, IP9 2JR