Regular readers of our blog may remember from a few months ago, a blog about a potential new species of beetle for Nottinghamshire found on site. Well, we were right and the following paper has appeared in the latest edition [21 (2), September 2012] of The Coleopterist journal. The Coleopterist is the journal for students of the beetle fauna of the UK, their website can be found here http://www.coleopterist.org.uk/. Many thanks to Dave Hubble, UK Chrysomelidae (leaf and seed beetle) recorder and Charlie Barnes, Lincolnshire county beetle recorder for assistance with identification, Dave Hubble for writing the paper, Sheila Wright of Nottingham Natural History Museum for checking through the Nottinghamshire records and Tony Allen of The Coleopterist journal for permission to reproduce this paper here.
Here is the paper....
Longitarsus dorsalis (Fabricius) (Chrysomelidae) new to Nottinghamshire
Dave Hubble1 and Jenny Wallace2
1 UK Chrysomelidae recorder
2 Assistant Warden, RSPB Langford Lowfields, Langford Quarry, Newark Road, Collingham, Notts NG23 7RF jennifer.wallace@rspb.org.uk
In mid December 2011, JW reported an escaped suspected individual of Longitarsus dorsalis (Fabricius) from the RSPB Langford Lowfields site (SK816606) near Newark, Nottinghamshire – a potential first record for the county. Soon afterwards, a specimen collected by JW on 3 January 2012 from the same location was sent to DH for confirmation having been initially identified as L. dorsalis by Charlie Barnes, the Lincolnshire county Coleoptera recorder. Unlike most Longitarsus species, L. dorsalis is distinctive due to the presence of yellowish to orange bands along the margins of the otherwise black elytra.
This species is widespread but scarce (Notable B) in the southern half of Britain; the NBN Gateway shows it to be distributed south and east of a line running from the Severn to the Humber, with the most northerly records being from North Yorkshire in 1978. It is mainly associated with ragworts Senecio and other Asteraceae in a variety of habitats, especially on free-draining calcareous and sandy soils, and as adults overwinter, they can be collected throughout the year (Hyman, 1992; Cox, 2007).
L. dorsalis appears to be common at Langford Lowfields and it is unclear whether it is a recent, but currently successful, colonist or has previously been overlooked.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Dr Sheila Wright, Curator of Biology at the Nottingham Natural History Museum for searching the Nottinghamshire records and confirming that this is a first for the county. A specimen sent by the RSPB has been added to the Museum’s British Coleoptera Collection.
References
COX, M.L. 2007. Atlas of the Seed and Leaf Beetles of Britain and Ireland, Newbury: Pisces.
HYMAN, P.S. (revised PARSONS, M.S.). 1992. A review of the scarce and threatened Coleoptera of Great Britain. Part 1. UK Nature Conservation: 3. Peterborough: Joint Nature Conservation Committee.