Welcome to the second BNIC newsletter, which appears over a year and a half after the first newsletter. My apologies for the delay; in my defence I plead that during the first half of 1999 I was distracted by both starting a new job and getting married. I trust that neither of these events is likely to take place again next year!

There are now 68 addresses on the BNIC mailing list. To save time I am sending the newsletter by email to all members for whom I have email addresses – if you are on email but have received the newsletter through the post please can you let me know your email address. If you know of other people who would like to receive BNIC mailings in future please let me know. If you do not wish to receive BNIC mailings in future please also let me know. Thanks to funding received last year from the Greenham Common Trust BNIC still has enough money to cover mailing costs for the immediate future.

The next BNIC indoor meeting is on Saturday 11 December 1999, 10.30am, at Reading Museum. Please go to the main entrance and ask for the BNIC meeting (or failing that for David Notton, who has kindly made arrangements for us to use the museum again this year). It may be possible to view the latest developments in the museum’s entomological facilities, if building works allow, but otherwise the meeting will be the usual mixture of news and discussion on invertebrate conservation in the county. Please can you let me know if you intend to be at the meeting, so that I have an idea of numbers for refreshments. If you have any particular issues to raise please also let me know in advance, and as usual please do bring along any exhibits or slides from the last year (a slide projector will be available).

Six BNIC members met at Eddington Marsh SSSI, on the edge of Hungerford in West Berkshire, to record invertebrates in this very attractive flood meadow. Wanda Fojt of English Nature and Mr Robin Tubb met us on-site to give some background about the site and its management. No great rarities have yet been identified (although as ever several of us are still working through the specimens from the day), but a good range of wetland species were found, including the hoverflies Platycheirus fulviventris, Helophilus trivittatus and Tropidia scita, and the silver hook moth was seen during the day and in the evening. The evening’s moth trapping produced a modest list on a showery night, but was made memorable by lighting and soundtrack provided by glow-worms and a nightingale.

This meeting (joint with BENHS and Butterfly Conservation) introduced entomologists to the wide open spaces of Greenham Common. Demolition work was still under way to remove the runways and other debris from the site’s former life as an airfield, but already the Common’s great potential for wildlife could be seen. Even in some mixed weather, there were good numbers of plant-feeding insects such as weevils and tephritid flies to be found, no doubt a result of the vast acreages of open, flowery vegetation on the Common, a mixture a heath and grassland.

The evening’s mothing was reasonably productive, with migrants including the vestal, and residents including the dotted border wave, a scarce heathland moth with relatively few Berkshire records. Records for Greenham Common are especially important at the moment, both to provide information to help develop the management plan as the airfield is converted back to a 'natural' habitat, and to help ward off the threats of house-building and other development which are have been put forward for the Common.

Some attractive flower-rich grassland surrounds this former gravel pit next to the M4. No great rarities have been reported from the site, but a range of wetland and grassland species was recorded.

This National Trust site has chalk downland surrounded by woodland. Several of the site’s known specialities were seen, including the hornet robberfly Asilus crabroniformis and the heath snail Helicella itala, but other species were more unexpected: the cuckoo bee Bombus (Psithyrus) rupestris had been declining back to strongholds in the south-west of Britain, but in the last few years has made a welcome recovery and was seen on this visit; the bee-wolf Philanthus triangulum was once considered a great rarity, being almost entirely confined to the Isle of Wight, but has spread north over the last five–ten years to reach as far as Yorkshire. Often associated with heathlands, at the Holies it had managed to find and colonise a tiny patch of sandy clay overlying the chalk on top of the hill.

Our spring indoor meeting took place at Braywick nature centre, and with fine sunny weather on the day we soon took the opportunity to investigate the grounds of the centre. A good selection of early spring species were active, including a very early teneral specimen of the large red damselfly. Some bees busy burrowing into bare ground among grassland on the site were Lasioglossum malachurus, a species that is classified as Nationally Scarce but which has been spreading in recent years and is now widespread in Berkshire.

Thyridanthrax fenestratus is a rare bee-fly associated with heathland in the south of England, where it parasitises the nests of sand wasps Ammophila pubescens. Although there are old literature records for Berkshire, it had not been found in the county for many years until Matt Smith rediscovered it at the Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Wildmoor Heath, near Bracknell, in 1998. It was seen again at the same reserve in 1999 by Martin Harvey. This species is one of three flies listed in the national Biodiversity Action Plan for which the British Entomological and Natural History Society is taking the lead for conservation work. BENHS would like to encourage further work on this fly in 2000, both to gain additional distribution records and to find out more about its behaviour and ecology. For further details of this project, contact Stephen Miles, BENHS Conservation Working Group, c/o 469 Staines Road West, Ashford, Middlesex, TW15 2AB.

After some confusion over the system for issuing permits to record at Windsor, it eventually fell to Ted Green and Martin Harvey to provide a list of names to the Crown Estate for 1999 permits. We hope that all who were expecting a permit got one – indeed, a few who were not expecting a permit got one as well! If anyone who did not get a permit this year would like to be added to the list for 2000 please contact Martin Harvey. BNIC’s part of the bargain is that we should submit copies of our records to the Crown Estate, so please send yours in direct or via me.

In 1998 a number of BNIC members were able to record in Windsor Great Park and Forest, and the results have already proved useful. Records from several members were used in a recent analysis of habitats within the Forest (see box below), and the very rare cranefly Ctenophora ornata was rediscovered at Windsor during a moth-recording evening in 1998. This spectacular insect subsequently featured in one of the Crown Estate’s newsletters. Tom Harrison has recorded an impressive number of rare beetles, and a small staphylinid beetle found by Bernard Verdcourt is a possible candidate for a first British record.

Windsor is such an important site for invertebrates, and covers such a large area, that further recording work will always be desirable. A priority for 1999 and beyond is to find out more about the invertebrates in the Bear’s Rails area. This is on the north-east edge of the Great Park, and has

been earmarked for habitat restoration work. Conifer plantations and introduced Turkey oaks will be removed, and the native species will be encouraged, in order to restore the area to high quality pasture woodland.

Recording is needed at Bear’s Rails both to find out more about the invertebrates that are already there, and to monitor the changes that will be taking place over the next few years. Between the conifers there are some spectacular ancient oaks, and also ancient maples and even ancient ivy, so the site is very promising.

Bear’s Rails is open to the public, but permits are required as usual if collecting is undertaken. It is possible to arrange access for mothing, but this needs to be cleared in advance with the Crown Estate. Contact Martin Harvey for details and maps.

This report collates existing information on habitats and species at Windsor. It includes very useful maps of the distribution of ancient trees across the Forest and Great Park, and relates the age-class and density of these trees to the occurrence of dead-wood dependent invertebrates. Some areas currently provide good dead-wood habitat and support many rare species, but will need special management to retain their interest (e.g. where no ‘middle-aged’ trees are available to provide the next generation of ancient trees). In other areas seemingly good habitat has few associated species, and it is suggested that more recording work should be targeted to these areas in future to see if they support additional colonies of the Windsor ‘specialities’. Recommendations for future management to conserve Windsor’s unique range of species and habitats are given.

Copies of the report are available to consult at English Nature, Foxhold House, Crookham Common, Thatcham, Berkshire, RG19 8EL, and Martin Harvey holds a copy on behalf of BNIC. If you are recording at Windsor and would like a copy of the report this may be possible to arrange, please contact Martin Harvey in the first instance.

To those of us who do not like to kill insects in order to identify them the collection of dead ones from window-ledges, sunroom floors, car radiators and a great variety of other situations can reveal useful records. A very distinctive fungus-gnat (Diptera: Mycetophilidae) found dead on a window-ledge on 25 September 1998 at my house at Kimbers, Maidenhead, puzzled me at first since, despite the extremely characteristic broad antennae resembling bayonets with both margins crenulate. I could find no illustrations in the literature available to me remotely resembling this. Peter Chandler kindly named it as Keroplatus testaceus Dalman, once considered rare; Peter told me he had taken it at about the same time at Dinton Pastures and that it was becoming more widespread. A fly I had found dead in the house the month before was clearly closely related, but smaller and much less striking. Peter named this as Orfelia fasciata (Meigen).

[The fungus-gnat K. testaceus also turned up in my moth-trap in 1997, on 16 August in Grahame Hawker’s garden in Padworth Common, once again kindly confirmed by Peter Chandler. A small word of warning if you do collect insects that have already died: ‘naturally’ dead insects soon acquire their own fauna of smaller, scavenging invertebrates such as booklice or Anthrenus carpet beetles, and can thus pose a threat to conventional insect collections. – MH]

"Biodiversity" has become something of a buzz-word among conservationists in recent years, and much effort has been devoted to drawing up Biodiversity Action Plans, both locally and nationally. Some of the action proposed simply continues the normal work of conservationists in protecting habitats and species. However, the new emphasis on biodiversity has resulted in some significant gains for conservation in general, and for invertebrates in particular.

The word biodiversity was coined to include the whole of biological diversity, and has drawn attention to the fact that the majority of species in Britain (and indeed the world) are invertebrates. The government’s Biodiversity Steering Group Report (Anon. 1995) included an extensive list of 1,252 species which were proposed as conservation priorities. Of these, about 450 species (36%) were non-marine invertebrates (Ball 1997). This list has subsequently been revised, and a shorter list has been drawn up of species of the greatest conservation priority. However, invertebrates are still well represented, and national action plans are now available for 183 species of invertebrate throughout the UK (UK Biodiversity Group 1999). This all means that invertebrates now have a higher profile than in many previous conservation strategies – quite rightly, given that at least 158, and possibly many more, species of invertebrate have become extinct in England since 1750 (English Nature 1994).

At a local level, local authorities are now required to address biodiversity conservation, and many are in the process of drawing up local biodiversity action plans (LBAPs). In Berkshire the situation has been complicated by last year’s splitting of the county into six unitary authorities, but some progress has been made by individual authorities in developing LBAPs, and both BBONT and English Nature have been closely involved in trying to coordinate this work through the Berkshire Nature Conservation Forum.

Local BAPs should include an audit of all the species listed in the national BAP which occur in the local area (other local priority species may also be added). For invertebrates, it is not always easy to find out which species have been recorded locally, as such information may be widely scattered among recording schemes, specialist publications and individual entomologists. To address this problem in Berkshire, BBONT commissioned a report on the county’s BAP invertebrates (Harvey 1998a). The report details all the species listed on the national BAP for which evidence of their occurrence in Berkshire (modern county) could be found.

The report shows that of the c. 485 terrestrial invertebrate species listed in the UK BAP, 118 (24%) have been recorded in Berks (another 4 have unconfirmed or dubious records in Berks). Of these 118, 56 (47%) may be extinct in the county (see Table 1 above). These range from species such as the mayfly Heptagenia longicauda, not recorded since 1868, to the small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly, recorded in the early 1990s but not reliably recorded for four or five years now despite searches at known sites. It is difficult to state with confidence that an invertebrate species is extinct; for butterflies and to a lesser extent moths and molluscs there has been enough recording to be fairly confident that a species is extinct if it has not been seen for 5–10 years or more, but for the less well-recorded groups it is not unusual for many years to elapse between records of a given species at a particular site. Indeed, for some of the species classed as extinct in the report the first priority should be to survey the last-known sites to see if in fact they do still occur.

In comparison to Bucks and Oxon (Harvey 1998b, 1998c) Berkshire has a higher proportion of extinct BAP species, but also a markedly higher proportion of species which are either known only from Berkshire or from Berks and very few other sites. This is mostly due to the extraordinary fauna of dead-wood invertebrates at Windsor Forest and Great Park, which includes several species never recorded anywhere else in Britain.

The report summarises the known records for BAP species, giving brief details of dates and sites. Initially, further recording work is the main priority, in the hope of finding strong colonies. Colonies can then be targeted for monitoring and ecological research, leading to a better understanding of the species concerned and enabling conservation strategies to put in place as necessary. [See below for news of projects on BAP moths and flies.]

Copies of the Berkshire BAP invertebrate report are available on paper from the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (The Lodge, 1 Armstrong Road, Littlemore, Oxford, OX4 4XT; tel: 01865 775476), or on disk from Martin Harvey:

Butterfly Conservation has been appointed the Lead Partner for the government’s Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for the majority of the priority moth species. A three year project was started in May 1999, funded by English Nature and Butterfly Conservation, to oversee the implementation of these Action Plans. This initially, but not exclusively, concentrates on England.

Action Plans have been published for species designated as Priority Species. Each Action Plan has a number of objectives and targets for each species. Examples include maintaining the population size of an individual species at all known sites and carrying out research to clarify the ecological requirements of a given species.

The Priority Species covered by the Action Plans are as follows (species recorded in Berkshire vice-county are shown in bold – several of these are now extinct in the county):

* Action Plan awaiting publication

A number of projects have already been started on selected species from this list (†). Most of the projects are targeted at establishing current distribution and we are encouraging individuals to record sites that may be suitable for the species, but from which there is no or no recent record. This will help us to establish priorities for future work. Further projects on other Priority Species for which Butterfly Conservation is Lead Partner are expected to be started in due course. A few of the species listed are also covered by the Species Recovery Programme through English Nature or have had projects supported by Scottish Natural Heritage or the Countryside Council for Wales.

A Steering Group is providing guidance for the project and comprises a number of specialists including Dr Paul Waring who is acting as an advisor to Butterfly Conservation.

If you would like to help with any of these projects on the species recorded from your area (or as part of a trip to another part of the country) please contact Mark Parsons or David Green at Butterfly Conservation, Conservation Office, PO Box 444, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5YA.

Saturday 20 November 1999, 10.30am to 5.30pm

Radstock House, Earley, Reading, Berkshire

Saturday 27 November 1999

Imperial College, London

Saturday 4 December 1999, 10.30am to 4pm

BENHS Pelham-Clinton Building, Dinton Pastures Country Park, Davis Street, Hurst, Reading, RG10 0GH. Free to BENHS members. To book a place contact Dr Ian McLean, Indoor Meetings Secretary, 109 Miller Way, Brampton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE18 8TZ.

Saturday 11 December 1999, 10.30am to c. 1pm

Reading Museum; see head of newsletter for further details

Saturday 29 January 2000, 10.30am to 4pm

See 4 December for details.

Saturday 4 March 2000, 10.30am to 4pm

See 4 December for details.

Saturday 8 April 2000, 10.30am to 4pm

See 4 December for details.

Saturday 6 May 2000, 10.30am to 4pm

See 4 December for details.

The Woodland Trust’s only property in Berkshire is Bisham Woods, a fine stand of woodland on the steep slope to the east of the Marlow bypass. Little is known of the invertebrates in this wood, and further recording by BNIC members would be very welcome. Contact Jill Butler of the Woodland Trust for further details: Jill Butler, Windrush, Spade Oak Reach, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, SL8 5RQ. Email: jillbutler@woodland-trust.org.uk.

The National Trust’s Biological Survey team will be visiting Berkshire NT properties next year, and will be reviewing the Trust’s conservation management for invertebrates. If any BNIC members have records from NT sites now would be a good time to send them in, or to plan visits to these sites for early next year! The Berkshire NT sites were listed in BNIC’s first newsletter, contact Martin Harvey if you need another copy of these details. Records should be sent to: Keith Alexander, The National Trust, 33 Sheep Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1RQ. Email: XEAKXA@smtp.ntrust.org.uk.