One noticeable effect of the recent flooding here at Langford has been the amount of debris left behind by the receding flood waters. Consisting of plant material of various species, the ‘strand lines’ are proving to be excellent feeding areas for birds including meadow pipit, pied and grey wagtail, coot, moorhen, black headed gull, lapwing and snipe. And what are they feeding on….insects and plenty of them too.
So, back in December we were joined by Lincolnshire county Coleoptera (beetle) recorder Charlie Barnes for a couple of sessions of ‘beetling’ – searching for beetles inside and underneath the flood debris.
Each session proved to be extremely productive, with beetles everywhere we looked. Most species were of the Family Carabidae, the ground beetles, but we also recorded plenty of specimens of the Staphylinidae (rove beetles), Coccinellidae (better known as the ladybirds), Chrysomelidae (leaf beetles) and Hydrophilidae (one of the families of water beetle).
In total, 55 species were identified from just 50 yards of flood debris, no wonder the birds like it! And perhaps the most interesting species recorded was a small ground beetle called Badister unipustulatus – no English name for this one. It is a pretty orange and black coloured species at around 6-7mm in length and is associated with wet grassland habitats. It has Nationally Notable B status (nationally uncommon) and after consultation with the experts, has turned out to be only the third record for Nottinghamshire, after one in 1921 and another in 1998.
Many thanks to Charlie, Mark Telfer and Sheila Wright for their help with finding and identifying beetles and confirming our third record for Notts.
And if you look along the shore line in this picture, here is an example of the insect-rich debris we have been searching through....