Dr Sarah Beynon from Dr Beynons Bug Farm was leading a guided insect walk on Ramsey on Thursday and discovered a new species of dung beetle for the Ramsey Island list.
It is called Aphodius foetens. It is widespread but local in the UK but Ramsey is only the second location in Pembrokeshire that Sarah has found it.
Don’t be fooled by the scale of the photo below, it is only 6-7mm in length!
Sarah led a successful insect walk and her baited pitfall traps were brimming with some of our larger dung beetles – 1 trap contained over 30 individuals; a mixture of Anoplotrupes stercorarius, Geotrupes spiniger and the rarer Trycopris vernalis to name a few (the beetles were all released unharmed after being identified).
Sarah has been studying dung beetles on Ramsey for several years and our range of grazing animals, lack of pesticide use, careful use of wormers and lack of ground predators make the island an ideal refuge for a wide range of these important species which in turn perform an important role in providing a reliable, year round food source for birds such as chough
Click on the following links for more information on Sarah’s work and forthcoming insect walks on Ramsey Island
Aphodius foetens (D.J. Mann Oxford University Museum of Natural History)