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Workshop Report |
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THE
FIRST SCOTTISH BWARS WORKSHOP, June 2007 - Brian Little
As anybody browsing the six BWARS Provisional Atlases will appreciate, for
the most part Scotland is a bit of an unknown quantity in terms of Aculeate
distribution. That’s not to say we have no interesting bee wasp and ant
fauna, there are a few very notable species indeed, the two Highland
Osmia, Colletes floralis and Bombus distinguendus to name but a
few. The main puzzle is where, and how widespread are those species
regarded as common in the south of the UK.
For us, one of the great barriers to recording solitary bees was the lack of
modern English language keys; and when available the difficulties in
steering some specimens through what are sometimes very technical
documents. So it was here in Fife that my wife Stephanie decided that,
after tackling moths, hover-flies etc on the reserve she manages, that bees
and wasps were to be the next challenge. It quickly became apparent that we
needed a bit of help, so we decided to attend a Lasioglossum ID workshop at
Dinton Pastures. Although Lasioglossum species still remain a difficult
prospect, we came away with the basic knowledge needed to have a go at the
‘wee brown jobs’ of the UK bee fauna, a list of enthusiastic new friends and
also the hope that more Scottish enthusiasts would somehow be able to
benefit from such an enjoyable event. David Baldock was very encouraging
and suggested we organise our own event, all you need is a suitable venue
and to find some more enthusiasts. We decided a two day event would be
best, which would as far as possible concentrate on species likely to be
found in the North. Day one would be a guided tour through keys with actual
specimens, with the added benefit for people to bring their own material to
either be checked or identified. Day two would be, weather permitting, a
field day. The venue was fairly easy, since we already had a good
relationship with the staff in Entomology at the National Museums for
Scotland based at West Granton. At the time we had a core of active BWARS
members in Scotland who were very keen to be guinea pigs. So we e-mailed
David and said we’ve done our bit, how about it? We were amazed at how
little convincing both David and Mike needed and set the date for 16th/17th
June. |
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So it was
that Keith Bland, Gordon Corbet, Andy Jarman, Richard Lyszkowski, Murdo
Macdonald, Jimmy McKellar, Bill Neill, Ann Marie Smout, Stephanie and I
arrived at West Granton with Mike Edwards and David for what we all agreed
was a superb day in the lab.
Graham Rotheray, Curator of Insects, welcomed the group to West Granton and
was most appreciative of the effort those present showed for such an under
recorded group.
Murdo Macdonald then presented an overview of modern aculeate recording in
Scotland. This was very well illustrated using Highland Biological Recording
Group data which, along with Bill Neill’s very comprehensive maps of bumble
bee distribution on the Western Isles gave an excellent idea of what can be
possible with a bit of effort and organisation.
Mike Edwards then delivered an entertaining overview of all of the Aculeate
families, their habits, how to find them and a few tips on ID references.
This was illustrated with some amazing photographs of many of the species
being so enthusiastically described. As always it is the life histories of
the animals that I find truly fascinating. |
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In the
afternoon there was a chance for one to one guidance in specimen ID with a
number of notable species found hiding in some peoples' boxes. The
highlights were Scotland’s first Andrena synadelpha and our second
Osmia caerulescens, both from Stirlingshire, and a cluster of modern
records of Crossocerus annulipes from both Edinburgh and Fife. From
our Fife box the first county records for Crossocerus megacephalus,
Sphecodes geoffrellus and S. hyalinatus. Also the only modern
record of Harpactus tumidius, and so it went on. This short list
highlights that there is plenty of scope for finding new county records of
what, in the south, are sometimes widespread species. |
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Students hard at work determining specimens, whilst Mike Edwards tells
stories of giant aculeates he has encountered!
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During the
afternoon session Graham gave small groups a short tour of the facilities
and NMS collections. He also outlined one of the major, if very
under-utilised facilities available to invertebrate recorders in Scotland –
the Scottish Invertebrates Records Index (SIRI). SIRI is thought to have
started in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s and has continued to this day. It
contains an index of all the published records of invertebrate species from
Scotland. Records have been extracted from the available UK based
invertebrate journals, and are filed using the published species name and
include vice county, site and details of the original citation. Even in our
short time recording aculeates we have found SIRI an invaluable resource. It
has helped us to target searches for ‘lost species’ and has provided
evidence that species thought possibly new to Scotland, have in fact been
here for quite a long time. An effective search does need the current
species name and any synonyms, but these can be found in the BWARS
checklist. Of recent note is Andrena nigriceps recorded from Ayrshire
in 2007. At the time it was thought to be new to Scotland, but was preceded
by a William Evans record of 1890! It has been a constant source of
amazement that in the late 19th century the aculeate enthusiasts
of the day seemed to have a much better handle on the Scottish fauna than we
do today. I do however stress the importance of publishing records, because
records hidden away in notebooks and in private collections will always be a
sad loss when mapping the past and of course present distribution and
history of our aculeate fauna.
Murdo Macdonald also demonstrated the facilities available from the modern
version of SIRI, the NBN Gateway. Murdo produced a range of distribution
maps and data lists showing how the searches could be used to tailor the
data output to better fit a users needs. One crucial difference between the
two systems is that the Gateway concentrates more on modern records. BWARS
has been central to ensuring that the Gateway provides a current, accurate
distribution of the UK's aculeate fauna, by providing access to data that
has been validated by BWARS before being released for public access. The
BWARS data set is being provided to the Gateway in stages and will as far as
possible be updated at regular intervals. I urge BWARS members to use both
these excellent resources and to ensure their records are included in future
BWARS Atlases and on the NBN Gateway. There are the inevitable errors in
both these systems, if you find or suspect you have found such a record/s
please let Mike Edwards know. The NBN Gateway URL is
http://www.searchnbn.net/.
So ended our fist day. It was one of the most relaxed ID events that I have
attended and was acclaimed by all present. From the collection we moved the
store to Kwoks, a local Chinese restaurant for a few beers and an excellent
meal. In such good company it was a most enjoyable finish to the day.
On Sunday six hardy souls faced our rather unpredictable summer weather for
our day in the field. We visited two sites, the first a substantial south
facing slope north of Burntisland, which had been florally quite interesting
and had produced a few good local records. Unfortunately a few days prior to
the visit, cattle were put to graze in our field, which they did with gusto,
removing most of the flowering plants in the process. There were still
areas, where over the years, cattle hooves and their rubbing activities had
created earth banks. These had small aggregations of Halictus rubicundus
attended by its parasite Sphecodes monilicornis. In addition we
found Lasioglossum calceatum, L. cupromicans and L.
villosulum on yellow composites,
Andrena semilaevis, which is poorly known in Scotland and was only
its second site in Fife, plus a few bumblebees. Of note amongst our list of
ants were Myrmica sabuleti, new to mainland Fife. |
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Intrepid hunters set out in search of aculeates.
Left to right: Gordon Corbet, Mike Edwards, Stephanie Little, Keith Bland,
David Baldock, Bill Neill, Andrew Jarman.
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In the
afternoon we were blessed with a bit of sunshine and Gordon Corbet led our
visit to Dumbarnie Links SWT reserve, east of Lower Largo. Gordon has for
many years concentrated on increasing our knowledge of the biodiversity of
this small area of Fife's south coast, with what can only be described as
spectacular results. From the track to the reserve we again found quite a
few Andrena semilaevis, also a few late Andrena haemorrhoa. Among
the wasps were a couple of Crossocerus elongatulus and the ever-present
Crabro cribrarius. Within the bounds of the reserve a female
Evagetes crassicornis was perhaps the star of the visit; sadly Fife
lists very few species of spider hunting wasp, this was the third record of
this species for the county. The ant list here also included Myrmica
scabrinodis, and for bumble bees the cuckoo Bombus bohemicus. In summary,
although the weather was kind to us - we did stay dry, the final list was
smaller than we had hoped. However, the field trip gave us all the
opportunity to get to know each other and it was a relaxing and informative
end to a great weekend, with the bonus of adding a few dots to the aculeate
map of Fife. To those reading this article, thinking I wish we could do
that, the hard bit is organising the venue and of course remembering to give
your experts as much notice as possible. |
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Andrena semilaevis
Photo: Mike Edwards
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We are all
indebted to Graham Rotheray and the NMS entomology staff for allowing access
to the collection and the facilities at West Granton, without their help the
workshop would never have materialised. Also to our experts, Mike Edwards
and David Baldock, without their initial encouragement and enthusiasm our
first Scottish Workshop would never have happened.
To our BWARS colleagues in England I would say that Scotland is far from an
aculeate free zone, we are simply short of enthusiastic recorders, although
that is slowly changing. Please visit us here in the north and after your
successful visit I would ask only two favours: Please make sure you send all
your records to BWARS (guidance on the web site). They are all very
valuable. This also includes all the things you recognise as common and
widespread in the south, for which we in the north may have very few
records. Please also copy them to Murdo Macdonald who collates the Scottish
records, he will be delighted to hear from you and will pass records on to
local groups/ enthusiasts – that is if there is one. To our colleagues
based in Scotland please get in touch; if we are lucky enough to repeat the
workshop, get involved. We would all be delighted to see you.
Brian & Stephanie Little, 3, Alexander the Third Street, Kinghorn, Fife, KY3
9SD, e-mail bhlittle@tiscali.co.uk.
Murdo
Macdonald, Tigh nam Beithe, STRATHPEFFER, Ross and Cromarty, IV14 9ET,
mamacdonald@syrphus.fsnet.co.uk
Interested in attending a workshop? Details
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