British Insects Research Articles

Charles Darwin’s early beetle collections: ‘Darwin’s beetle box’ and the Down House box

ABSTRACT Charles Darwin’s enthusiasm for collecting beetles during his time as a student at the University of Cambridge is well known, and ‘Darwin’s beetle box’ in the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge has been claimed to be his student collection. A collection of beetles at Down House is similarly thought to be Darwin’s collection of British beetles, but is imprecisely dated. Here we compare the species present in the boxes with the annotations in his copy of Stephens’ ‘British Insects’, and other notes, correspondence and specimens. There is a very close match between these sources of information and in the curation of the two boxes, the pins used and the handwritten labels, including some written by Emma Darwin. These similarities and details of correspondence lead us to conclude that most of the contents of both boxes represent the collections made by Charles Darwin in 1829–31, with the addition of one specimen provided by Alfred Russel Wallace in 1866 and two probably from Francis Darwin.

A gyne of Stenamma westwoodii Westwood, 1839, (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Worcestershire, England, with clarification of regional Stenamma records

Since the revival of Stenamma debile (Förster, 1850) from synonymy with Stenamma westwoodii Westwood, 1839 by DuBois (1993) the latter species appears to be a genuinely rare native British insect. The appearance of a S. westwoodii gyne in south Worcestershire, England on 23. x.2019 warrants some discussion of the genus.

Ichneumonid Wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae): Their Classification and Biology (Handbook for the Identification of British Insects Vol.7, Part 12), by Gavin Broad, Mark Shaw & Michael Fitton

Ichneumonid Wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae): Their Classification and Biology (Handbook for the Identification of British Insects Vol.7, Part 12), by Gavin Broad, Mark Shaw & Michael Fitton

Ichneumonid Wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae): their Classification and Biology; Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects, vol. 7, part 12, by Gavin R. Broad, Mark R. Shaw & Michael G. Fitton

Ichneumonid Wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae): their Classification and Biology; Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects, vol. 7, part 12, by Gavin R. Broad, Mark R. Shaw & Michael G. Fitton

British phenological records indicate high diversity and extinction rates among late-summer-flying pollinators

The long-term decline of wild and managed insect pollinators is a threat to both agricultural output and biodiversity, and has been linked to decreasing floral resources. Further insight into the temporal relationships of pollinators and their flowering partners is required to inform conservation efforts. Here we examined the phenology of British: (i) pollinator activity; (ii) insect-pollinated plant flowering; and (iii) extinct and endangered pollinator and plant species. Over 1 million records were collated from the historical databases of three British insect monitoring organisations, a global biodiversity database and an authoritative text covering the national flora. Almost two-thirds (62%) of pollinator species have peak flight observations during late-summer (July and August). This was the case across three of the groups studied: aculeate wasps (71% of species), bees (60%), and butterflies (72%), the exception being hoverflies (49%). When species geographical range (a proxy for abundance) was accounted for, a clear late-summer peak was clear across all groups. By contrast, there is marked temporal partitioning in the flowering of the major plant groups: insect-pollinated tree species blossoming predominantly during May (74%), shrubs in June (69%), and herbs in July (83%). There was a positive correlation between the number of pollinator species on the wing and the richness of both flowering insect-pollinated herbs and trees/shrubs species, per calendar month. In addition, significantly greater extinctions occurred in late-summer-flying pollinator species than expected (83% of extinct species vs. 62% of all species). This trend was driven primarily by bee extinctions (80% vs. 60%) and was not apparent in other groups. We contend that this is principally due to declines in late-summer resource supplies, which are almost entirely provisioned by herbs, a consequence of historical land-use change. We hypothesize that the seasonality of interspecific competition and the blooming of trees and mass-flowering crops may have partially buffered spring-flying pollinators from the impacts of historical change.

Book Review

The Adult Trichoptera (caddisflies) of Britain and Ireland (Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects volume 1, part 17) by Peter Barnard and Emma Ross . 2012 . Royal Entomological Society, St. Albans, U.K. 192 pp. with line drawings and colour photographs . ISBN 9780901546944 , paperback, £29.50. Adult Trichoptera are at times dismissed as being too drab to be of interest. Although less colourful than many in their sister group the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), many species do have striking wing patterns. Appearances aside, caddisflies have interesting life histories and are important inhabitants of freshwater habitats, both ecologically and as indicator species. For those not put off by the potentially drab cover of trichopterans, good identification resources are critical to identify what you have caught. Prior to the recent publication of The Adult Trichoptera (caddisflies) of Britain and Ireland, the best resource was Thomas Macan's (1973)A Key to the Adults of the British Trichoptera. While Macan's book provided usable keys, it also required a certain level of determination, and was very unlikely to appeal to those not already with a serious interest in Trichoptera. In contrast to this, The Adult Trichoptera (caddisflies) of Britain and Ireland is much better organized, and includes colour photos which allow some of the more striking species to be identified from general appearance alone. The book provides keys to all 199 known species of caddisflies in the British Isles and contains several informative introductory chapters. The actual introduction covers earlier works, provides references for the identification of British caddisfly larvae and a description of the geographical area covered by the keys. The introduction also mentions the very useful online Trichoptera World Checklist (http://entweb.clemson.edu/database/trichopt) which includes references for both original descriptions and later taxonomic changes. Chapters on life history, morphology, and collecting and preserving adult caddisflies follow, all with further references. The technical chapter includes photos illustrating the difference in appearance of in situ genitalia of dry and alcohol-preserved specimens, as well as cleared genitalia. A short chapter on the pros and cons of dichotomous keys, some notes on species accounts, a higher classification of the Trichoptera families found in Britain and a checklist of British species are also part of the introductory section. The main part of the book is dedicated to identification of the British caddisflies to species. While the authors discuss the question to key or not to key, they end up using fairly traditional keys at the higher levels (families and genera). Within genera the authors have decided not to use keys, but instead rely on extensive illustrations. Unfortunately the authors seem to be unaware of the innovative approach by Steven Marshall (2006) in his recent book: Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity. Marshall used graphical keys, creating bifurcating identification trees which make it easy to trace both forward and backward in the key. However, the keys in the present book are well organized and illustrated, and the authors have completely avoided the use of the potentially confusing term ‘not as above’. Key and diagnostic characters are clearly indicated in the drawings, facilitating use by people not familiar with the nomenclature of wing venation or Trichoptera genitalia. In the family key (not every key as stated by the authors), the authors provide the number of the preceding couplet after the couplet number, e.g. 14(11) indicates that couplet 14 was reached via couplet 11, to facilitate back tracking. The first key is to families, after which follows keys for the different families, starting with the spicipalpian families followed by the annulipalpian and integripalpian families. Within each family, the species are grouped by genus and the genera are arranged phylogenetically. This contrasts with the checklist in which the genera within each family/subfamily/tribe are arranged alphabetically. Once through the keys, the reader is directed to a (number of) species account(s) with information on common name (if any), size and general appearance, abundance, distribution and habitat as well as flight period. The species accounts include illustrations of male and female genitalia, generally illustrations of wing venation, and in most cases, colour photos of the wings/and or a live specimen. The many colour photographs and the uncluttered drawings of genitalia are a definite asset for this book. The book is a considerable improvement on its predecessor, Macan's A Key to the Adults of the British Trichoptera, and I would warmly recommend it to anyone wanting to identify adult British Trichoptera. Marie Djernaes 1

The Royal Entomological Society book of British insects

The Royal Entomological Society book of British insects

The Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects

The Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects

The Royal Entomological Society book of British insects

The Royal Entomological Society book of British insects

Book Review

The Staphylinidae (Rove Beetles) of Britain and Ireland. Parts 7 and 8: Oxyporinae, Steninae, Euaesthetinae, Pseudopsinae, Paederinae, Staphylininae (Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects Volume 12) by Derek A. Lott and Roy Anderson . 2011 . Royal Entomological Society, St. Albans, U.K. 340 pp . with line drawings and colour photo plates . ISBN 9780901546920 , paperback, £49. Staphylinidae are loved by many coleopterists and shunned by at least as many, especially beginners, both because of their immense diversity and the necessity to look at details for identification. It is in fact THE beetle family with most described species. Freude et al. (1964, 1974, updated by Assing & Schülke, 2012) are the long-time standard handbooks for determining Staphylinidae in Central Europe. For the focus area of this handbook (the British Isles, but not the Channel Islands) this was still needed. Tottenham (1954) started work on a series of staphylinid handbooks, but only the first of three intended sections was published. In 2009 work began on updating and hopefully completing this project, incorporating the latest developments in taxonomy and making workable keys available. The first part on the Oxyteline group (Lott, 2009) set the new design and structural standard for the new mini-series. The present book starts out with an abstract (containing an irritating mistake of ‘five’ subfamilies and then naming six, unfortunately reproduced by many booksellers), acknowledgements and an introductory part. This is a slightly updated and adjusted version of the 2009 introductory part, containing, for example, general introduction, morphology, biology, collection and preservation, a short morphological glossary, the newest taxonomic state and an overview of the structure of this huge family (a kind of publishing plan). It becomes apparent that the book at hand deals with all subfamilies of the Staphylinine group, but unfortunately excludes the newly added Scydmaeninae. This subfamily of only 32 species in the area will thus either make it into a micro-handbook or be treated together with subfamilies of other affiliations. This is followed by the subfamily key from 2009 (slightly updated) and an extremely useful checklist, where more ranks (e.g. subtribes) as well as synonyms to genera and species are added, disentangling the flood of names somewhat. The subfamilies are then dealt with in due order, starting with a compilation of general facts: characters for easy recognition, natural history, distribution and species numbers, both worldwide and for the focus area (unfortunately, the authors didn't get their numbers for Staphylininae right: 185, not 181 or 184). A key to genera is then presented, treating these genera one by one with a similar fact sheet, a species key and very good species accounts. All keys are accompanied with numerous line drawings in just the right place to illustrate characters referred to in the key, with the nice side effect that there is left space between the alternatives for your own notes (a positive surprise in times of restricted publishing space). Species accounts are separated from the key (in contrast to Käfer Mitteleuropas), so that a lot of information can be provided: a short description, a very useful section on similar species, habitat and distribution on the British Isles, and, where possible, notes on biology. This is an invaluable resource for collectors, monitoring biologists and anybody who is just interested. Illustrations of special body parts are also arranged in plates for easy and quick comparison between species. Although the drawings of external characters are usually of good quality and reasonably detailed, many of the drawings of aedeagi suffer from severe simplification and appear outright sketchy, a few even on the verge of [being] useless (especially where the lateral view is not provided). Spermatheca, even where possible to use, are not depicted at all. The beautiful plates of colour habitus photographs (190 spp, quite a good chunk of the 328 species covered in all) at the end of the book compensate a bit for this, at least aesthetically. All in all, this handbook is a valuable and much-needed source for determining the Staphylinidae of the British Isles. As there is this huge diversity in all respects, the group is very rewarding for everybody, from the amateur collector to the hardened professional systematist. The volume (and the whole mini-series) will hopefully help encourage those faint-of-heart coleopterists around the British Isles to get over their reluctance and start determining staphylinids, discover that they are not as bad, and maybe do some more work on them. Andrea M. Schomann 1

The Royal Entomomological Society Book of British Insects

The Royal Entomomological Society Book of British Insects

Peter C. Barnard: The Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects

Peter C. Barnard: The Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects

Book Review

Book Review

T. R New, Psocids. Psocoptera (Booklice and barklice). Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects

T. R New, Psocids. Psocoptera (Booklice and barklice). Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects

Chrysanthemum stem necrosis tospovirus

<i>Chrysanthemum stem necrosis tospovirus</i>

Natural History and Epiphany: Elizabeth Bishop’s Darwin Letter

Writing in his Autobiography about joys of beetle collecting and, particularly, pleasure of discovering new species, Charles makes an interesting comparison: No poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem published than did at seeing, in Stephens' Illustrations of British Insects, magic words, captured by C. Darwin, Esq. (21) Here compares simplest of his accomplishments--the capture of new beetle--to publication of poem. Taking my cue from this remark, would like to compare pattern underpinning Darwin's work to Elizabeth Bishop's characteristic process of epiphany. The idea is originally Bishop's and was first put forward as part of correspondence between Bishop and Anne Stevenson that took place in 1960s, while Stevenson was working on what was to be first full-length study of Bishop's poetry. In letter of 28 October 1963, Stevenson sent Bishop working outline of book, second chapter of which was to deal with relationship between Bishop and the surrealists and symbolists too, particularly Klee and Ernst. Stevenson perceived in all three an interest in hallucinatory and dream material and shared belief that there is no personality, but rather sensitivity that extends equally into subconscious and conscious world. In her reply Bishop agrees about lack of split between conscious and unconscious but is less enthusiastic about surrealism. Instead, she changes topic to Darwin: Yes, agree with you. think that's what was trying to say in speech above. There is no split. Dreams, works of art (some), glimpses of always-more-successful surrealism of everyday life, unexpected moments of empathy (is it?), catch peripheral vision of whatever it is one can never really see full-face but that seems enormously important. can't believe we are wholly irrational-and do admire Darwin! But reading Darwin, one admires beautiful and solid case being built up out of his endless heroic observations, almost unconscious or automatic--and then comes sudden relaxation, forgetful phrase, and one feels strangeness of his undertaking, sees lonely young man, his eyes fixed on facts and minute details, sinking or sliding giddily off into unknown. What one seems to want in art, in experiencing it, is same thing that is necessary for its creation, self- forgetful, perfectly useless concentration. (Letter 8-20 Jan. 1964; hereafter Jan. letter) There is much to be said about this passage, but what am interested in here is somewhat surprising shift from surrealism to Darwin. Though Bishop flirted with surrealism in her youth, she later took pains to distance herself from it: I [...] am not surrealist she wrote to her publisher with uncharacteristic firmness in 1946, worried about what might appear on back of her first collection of poetry (One Art 135). And yet, confronted with Stevenson's attempt to link her to Ernst, whom she calls a dreadful painter (Jan. letter), Bishop, ever polite, does not correct Stevenson so much as simply change subject. When Stevenson raises question of surrealism and relationship between conscious and unconscious, Bishop agrees, and then talks about Darwin. The link here is Ernst's Histoire naturelle, book that Bishop owned as young woman, and which she mentions to Stevenson as one of few of Ernst's works that she liked (Jan. letter). In letter to Hallie Tompkins, written when she first got book, she describes it as an attempt to mak[e] fun of Darwin (qtd. in Millier 89). But though train of thought that leads Bishop from surrealism to Ernst's Histoire naturelle to is clear, use to which she then puts is considerably more complicated. …

IDENTIFYING BRITISH INSECTS and ARACHNIDS, AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF KEY WORKS. Edited by Peter C. Barnard. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. 1999. Pp. 353. Hardcover. f50.00. ISBN 0521 63241 2.

IDENTIFYING BRITISH INSECTS and ARACHNIDS, AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF KEY WORKS. Edited by Peter C. Barnard. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. 1999. Pp. 353. Hardcover. f50.00. ISBN 0521 63241 2.

Identifying British Insects and Arachnids: An Annotated Bibliography of Key Works

Identifying British Insects and Arachnids: An Annotated Bibliography of Key Works

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Extinction Rates in British Nonmarine Invertebrates since 1900

Two greatly understudied areas of science are the number of species on Earth (May 1994) and the rate at which they are becoming extinct (Myers 1994; Lawton & May 1995). These are formidable questions, with few regions having good let alone repeated surveys of fauna and flora. The biodiversity of Britain is among the best recorded, however, and Red Data Books (RDBs), which can be used to estimate British extinction rates, are available on several invertebrate taxa (Shirt 1987; Bratton 1991). A compilation of species listed in the RDB (Shirt 1987) as probably extinct before 1900 suggests that 1% of the British insect fauna became extinct this century (May et al. 1995). We use the same source to estimate the extinction rate, but we use probable extinctions since 1900.