We are excited to report an inconspicuous weevil has recently been found at Fen Drayton Lakes that has never been recorded on any other of the 225 RSPB reserves! This new species was found on nettles near its food plant, mayweed, which is very common on the reserve. The name of the species is Pseudostyphlus pillumus, it doesn't have a vernacular name as it is quite an obscure little thing.
Web image of Pseudostyphlus pillumus by U.Schmidt, 2013 Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Weevils are a type of beetle that are characterised by having a long snout, helping to chew tunnels into plant tissues and to feed on the plant. This family of insects is one of the largest in the world with over 83,000 species described worldwide. Identifying them is quite a difficult challenge so we are grateful to the person who not only found this insect but looked closely and managed to confidently identify it to species level. Visitors, experts, volunteers and staff all contribute to the knowledge of what is present on our reserves. If you find something on our reserve we ask that you submit the record to iRecord (available as a website and as an app for smartphones) as the record comes back to us after being verified.
There are known to have been over 18,700 species recorded on RSPB reserves across the UK so we can now say it is at least 18,701 species! Recording continues across the reserve and it is likely the are more new species to be discovered at Fen Drayton Lakes, with the wide variety of habitats we have here and lying in a floodplain. There will be more specialists and new colonisers to find too. Particular groups of species that haven't been very heavily recorded on the reserve in the past include fungi, moths and many other groups of insects. If you are interested in recording on the reserve we only ask that you stay on trails. Please feel free to contact us for any advice, permissions or further information - email me at Henry.Cook@rspb.org.uk
Henry Cook Assistant Warden – Fen Drayton Lakes