A provisional list of caddis flies (Trichoptera) from Fair Isle (Shetland, U. K.) and notes on similarities and differences with another isolated landmass, St Kilda

Capsule Atlantic Island Wrens are very closely related to mainland European populations.Aims The first genetic screen of the North-east Atlantic island subspecies of (Winter) Wren Troglodytes troglodytes was performed to resolve their relationship to mainland Eurasian and Nearctic populations.Methods The ND2 gene was sequenced from 15 wrens from Iceland, Faroe Islands, St Kilda, Outer Hebrides, Fair Isle and Shetland (2–3 individuals of each subspecies) and compared with Eurasian Wrens from mainland Britain and Europe, and Winter Wrens from North America.Results All island subspecies were shown to originate from European rather than Nearctic founders. Genetic divergence from mainland British and European populations was small (0.1–0.3% uncorrected). The major European haplotype was present in some individuals from Shetland, Fair Isle and Faroes. Novel unique haplotypes were found in all individuals of St Kilda, Iceland and Hebridean Wrens, and in two individuals of Fair Isle Wren, contrasting with the high inferred levels of gene flow across Europe.Conclusions Genetic data are consistent with a postglacial colonization of Atlantic islands from mainland Britain and Europe, possibly with continued gene flow due to migration of European birds. Tentatively, St Kilda Wren and Iceland Wren may be more closely related; most other subspecies are probably polyphyletic.

British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee: 42nd Report (October 2013)

House mice (Mus rnusculus muralis) on St Kilda became extinct within about 18 months of the human population leaving the island in 1930. Although it was argued at the time that they died out because they were unable to find enough food, house mice flourish on a number of uninhabited islands and it seems more probable that they could not successfully compete with the Long‐tailed field mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) in the absence of man.A study of the distribution and diet of both house and field mice on the Shetland islands of Foula and Fair Isle shows that the house mouse populations tend to be centred on human dwellings, although both species were found apparently living together on Foula away from habitation. The natural history of the two species is reviewed, and it is concluded that the breeding of the house mouse is the most probable characteristic to be upset by disturbance, and that the disappearance of man on St Kilda allowed Apodemus to enter a habitat previously occupied almost exclusively by Mus.

Sanionia orthothecioides (Lindb.) Loeske (Drepanocladus orthothecioides (Lindb.) Roth) is reported from three Scottish islands, Hirta (St Kilda), Mainland of Shetland and Fair Isle, new to the British Isles. It is described and illustrated and the differences with the closely related S. uncinata (Hedw.) Loeske discussed.

Every few years a large proportion of the feral sheep on Hirta, St Kilda die due to food shortage. The effects of malnutrition are exacerbated by gastrointestinal nematodes. As found in sheep flocks in mainland Britain, Teladorsagia circumcincta has long been considered the predominant and most pathogenic nematode species in all age classes of Soay sheep. Previous research indicated that intensity of this species showed a negative association with host age and comprised 75% of the entire gastrointestinal burden. Here we present new data that show Trichostrongylus axei and Trichostrongylus vitrinus to be the predominant worm pathogens in young Soay sheep. In the present study, Trichostrongylus spp. burdens declined with host age whereas T. circumcincta actually increased in burden over the first few age classes. Also, male hosts had significantly higher burdens of Trichostrongylus spp. than females, with this genus making up a higher proportion of the strongyle egg producing community in male hosts than female hosts. These new findings raise questions concerning our previous interpretation of the main nematode species contributing to strongyle egg count in the population, and the contrasting infection patterns of these nematode species in unmanaged St Kilda Soay sheep compared with domestic sheep in mainland Britain.

The wing lengths of Great Spotted Woodpeckers Dendrocopos major resident in Britain (subspecies anglicus) are more variable than had previously been realised, with one individual in a thousand reaching extremes of 123 mm and 140 mm. As a result, many of the past British records claiming to be of the larger continental subspecies major have probably been misidentified. There is no reliable evidence to indicate that continental Great Spotted Woodpeckers visit Britain annually. Rather, infrequent irruptions into Britain occur about once in 12 years. Birds arriving at Fair Isle are at the top end of the size range of this species, and probably originate from northern Russia and Scandinavia. The birds irrupting into the mainland of Britain are intermediate in size but, on average, have longer wings than the British residents, and so only the larger individuals with wing lengths beyond the British range can be identified as of continental origin. Woodpeckers originating from continental areas south of the Baltic have similar wing lengths to British birds and cannot be identified from wing length measurements. Currently, there are only two instances of Great Spotted Woodpeckers being ringed on the European continent and recovered in Britain, again indicating that immigrant birds are probably few.

Fair Isle is a small isolated island located off the northern tip of Great Britain. Recognised internationally for rare migratory birds and important seabird colonies, the flora of Fair Isle has re...

Nonindigenous freshwater species cause large ecological and economic impacts in Great Britain. In response the government is in the process of implementing a broad, new nonindigenous species strategy. We assembled a list of all nonindigenous freshwater species that are or were established in Great Britain, their date of first record, and their vector of introduction. This list provides a baseline against which the success of new policies can be assessed. Because the biota of Great Britain has been well recorded, our results provide a highly resolved case study of the vectors and drivers of species transport and establishment. A total of 117 nonindigenous freshwater species are currently established in Great Britain; a further 17 species were once established but are now extirpated. Between 1800 and 2000 the number of established species increased at an accelerating rate, and this increase correlated with the growth in human population and gross domestic product. The construction of large reservoirs in Great Britain occurred over a short period and overlapped high rates of new species establishment, indicating that habitat modification may have been an important driver of establishment. Nonindigenous species now account for 24% of fish, 12% of plant, 54% of amphibian, and 88% of decapod crustacean freshwater species richness in Great Britain. The ornamental trades have been responsible for the greatest percentages of intentionally (73%) and unintentionally (34%) introduced species that have become established. Shipping and aquaculture have also been strong vectors. These vectors should be prioritized for management within the new nonindigenous species strategy.

British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee: 30th Report (October 2003)

We discuss proposals to extend the list of protected insect species in Great Britain and question whether existing species protection measures are appropriate for insects whose ecology is substantially unknown. We highlight the practicalities of applying such measures to very poorly known taxa, whose identification depends upon highly experienced specialists and a tiny pool of relevant expertise. We propose a seven-point plan that would strengthen invertebrate conservation in Great Britain. Our proposals could be applied to other countries with a protected sites network and a desire to improve habitat-based insect conservation measures.Implications for insect conservationOur analysis suggests that insect conservation will not be improved by legislation that restricts the potential for adhoc surveillance that currently provides almost all the data used to monitor rare and threatened insects. We highlight the need for Improvements in the understanding of insect micro-habitat requirements amongst conservation managers. Our proposed seven-point plan provides a structured approach to insect conservation that should improve identification of important insect sites, site management and landscape-scale conservation measures.

Aim Geographical variation in parasite diversity is examined among populations of fish in their original heartland and in areas where they have been introduced. The diversity in heartland and introduced populations is contrasted, and also compared with the expectations of a null model.Location Data on the parasite communities of two salmonid fish species were obtained: the rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in its British Columbia heartland and in introduced populations in North America, Great Britain, South America and New Zealand; and the brown trout Salmo trutta in heartland populations from Great Britain, and in introduced populations in North America, South America and New Zealand.Methods The average taxonomic distinctness and its variance were computed for each parasite community, and used as measures of the taxonomic diversity of parasite species in each fish population. Observed values of taxonomic distinctness were also compared with those expected if each community was a random selection from the world list of parasite species known for each of the two host species.Results Few parasite communities departed from the expectations of the null model, i.e. few had a taxonomic diversity of parasites greater or lower than that expected from a random selection of parasite species. However, these departures were not more or less likely among heartland fish populations than among introduced ones. In both fish species, parasite communities in introduced populations tended to be a little more taxonomically diverse than in the heartland populations.Main conclusions Overall, the results suggest that the accumulation of parasite species in introduced hosts over short (ecological) periods of time can result in parasite assemblages that are just as, or even more, taxonomically diverse than those developed over much longer (evolutionary) time frames in the host species geographical heartland. This finding highlights the importance of ecological factors in parasite biodiversity in addition to coevolutionary processes.

Summary1. Data on the occurrence of species in grid cells are collected by biological recording schemes, typically with the intention of publishing an atlas. Interpretation of such data is often hampered by the lack of information on the effort that went into collecting them. This is the ‘recorder effort problem’.2. One measure of recorder effort is the proportion of a suite of common species (‘benchmark species’) found at a given location and time. Benchmark species have in the past been taken as a uniform set across a territory. However, if records are available from a neighbourhood surrounding a given location, then a local set benchmark species can be defined by pooling records from the neighbourhood and selecting the commonest species in the pooled set.3. Neighbourhoods differ in species richness, so that the list of species that ‘ought’ to be found in one location may be longer than that for another. If the richness of a neighbourhood can be estimated, then a suite of benchmark species can be standardized to be the commonest of a fixed proportion of the total expected for the neighbourhood. Recording effort is then defined as the proportion of benchmark species that were found.4. A method of estimating species richness is proposed here, based on the local frequencies fj of species in neighbouring grid cells. Species discovery is modelled as a Poisson process. It is argued that when a neighbourhood is well sampled, the frequency‐weighted mean frequency /∑fj of species in the neighbourhood will assume a standard value.5. The method was applied to a data set of 2 000 000 records detailing the occurrence of bryophytes in 3695 out of the total 3854 hectads (10‐km squares) in Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.6. Three main applications are outlined: estimation of recording effort, scanning data for unexpected presences or absences and measurement of species trends over time. An explicit statistical model was used to estimate trends, modelling the probability of species j being found at location i and time t as the outcome of Poisson process with intensity Qijtxjt, where xjt is a time factor for species j, and Qijt depends on recording effort at location i and time t and on the time‐independent probability of species j being found in hectad i.

Introduction. Viewing a section of one of the Lower Carboniferous Limestones, and noting the prodigious numbers of crinoid fragments of which it is usually composed, one cannot but regret that so very few complete specimens of the organisms have been preserved to us. This has always been a subject of lament to Scottish palæontologists. In the Carboniferous Limestones of Scotland, as a whole, cups even appear to be of rare occurrence, and judging from the lists of species hitherto published, and the specimens exhibited in our museums, they occur at widely-separated localities. Now, in Fife this is not the case, where, I am glad to say, it has been my good fortune to find several localities within a short distance of one another, where large numbers of cups and more or less entire specimens may be found. This is an interesting fact, for among the many classes of organisms which abound in our rocks there is, I think, no more beautiful object than a well-preserved crinoid—a specimen which always brings a thrill of joy and delight to the heart of its discoverer. If we examine the collections of Scottish Carboniferous fossils which are exhibited in our museums, the crinoids occupy but a small space compared with other classes. Further, if we note the lists of crinoid species from Scotland recorded in various publications, the total is by no means large. Scottish Carboniferous crinoid nomenclature is in a very unsatisfactory state at present, and when we remember that many of the This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

The invertebrate ecology of aquifers has received little attention. This paper presents an analysis of stygobite (obligate groundwater) fauna from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). A review is presented of the ecosystem functions performed by these creatures, their potential vulnerability to anthropogenic stress including water pollution and abstraction, and research priorities that will allow current groundwater management challenges to be addressed. In Great Britain stygobites are largely restricted to England and Wales. The assemblage comprises crustacean invertebrates (nine species) and is very limited in comparison with continental Europe. There is only one known endemic species in Great Britain, Niphargus glenniei (a further two endemic crustaceans are also known from the Republic of Ireland). Additionally, a suite of water mites (18 species) is found in the interstitial habitats of running waters in Great Britain. Niphargus glenniei was recently added to the United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan priority species list. Stygobites, which are found only in subterranean environments such as aquifers, springs and the hyporheic zone of rivers, make a unique contribution to biodiversity. Our analysis suggests that both the glacial legacy and the nature of the (hydro)geology are major controls on the distribution of these assemblages. Most records were from locations to the south of the southern limit of the ice sheet during the Devensian glaciation. The majority of stygobites were also found in calcareous strata, although high calcium carbonate concentrations may not be important to all crustacean stygobites. Records were dominated by samples from the Chalk, the Carboniferous and Jurassic Limestone aquifers, and from other strongly fissured strata. Strata with extensive fissuring may provide the greatest availability of habitat for groundwater fauna. Our investigation revealed that there are relatively few sites from which stygobites have been recorded in Great Britain (513 sites at which records of stygobites have been confirmed). Research is needed to improve our understanding of the basic biology and ecology of groundwater-dwelling fauna and the range of ecosystem services that they provide. An understanding of the response of groundwater fauna to stress caused by pollution and abstraction pressures is also needed, together with the development of appropriate monitoring, assessment and protection criteria. The Water Framework Directive requires a more integrated assessment of the chemical, water resources and ecological conditions of water bodies. Stygobites have the potential to act as sentinels in the subterranean environment and help inform us about the condition and ecological health of this little-considered habitat.

SUMMARY. 1. Macro‐invertebrate species lists were obtained for 268 sites on forty‐one river systems throughout Great Britain by qualitative sampling in spring, summer and autumn. Information on twenty‐eight environmental variables was also collated for each site. The sites were ordinated on the basis of their species content using detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and classified by two‐way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN). Correlation coefficients between ordination scores and single environmental variables indicated that Axis 1 distinguished between types of rivers and Axis 2 reflected variation along the length of rivers. A preliminary classification of sites into sixteen groups has been proposed, together with a key which allows new sites to be classified. Information on the species and environmental features which characterize each group is also presented.2. Multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) was employed to predict the group membership of the 268 sites using the twenty‐eight environmental variables. 76.1% of sites were classified correctly. An independent assessment of predictive ability using forty test sites yielded a 50% success rate. Predictive ability was higher for the classification presented in this paper than in fifteen additional classifications produced using data from single seasons and/or different taxonomic treatments.3. TWINSPAN and MDA were found to be useful approaches to the classification of running‐water sites by their macro‐invertebrate fauna and the prediction of community type (as indicated by the occurrence of species in the sites comprising the group) using environmental variables. Extension of the scope of the classification, coupled with the use of additional environmental variables to increase predictive ability, is now in progress.