Beetle Survey on Dundreggan in 2007-8

As part of our ongoing project to identify the biological diversity on Dundreggan, we contracted Richard Lyszkowski to carry out a survey of beetles on the Estate in 2007 and 2008. Richard is an entomologist specialising in Coleoptera, as beetles are known in taxonomic terms, and he made six separate visits to Dundreggan between May 2007 and August 2008, to maximise the possibility of observing as large a number of species as possible.

Beetles are the most diverse group of organisms on the planet, with 370,000 species now known worldwide, and there are over 4,000 species recorded in the UK. They live in a wide variety of habitats, and many of them are very small (in some cases, less than a millimetre in size) so it is time-consuming and detailed work to locate individual specimens in the field and then identify them correctly!

Richard Lyszkowski setting a pitfall trap beside the carcass of a red deer (Cervus elaphus) to collect carrion-feeding beetles during his survey on Dundreggan in 2008.

I joined Richard on some of his survey days on Dundreggan, and quickly learned that having a good knowledge of the habitats that beetles live in is essential. Thus, for example, I watched him using a net to scoop water beetles out of some of the pools and ponds in the floodplain area of the River Moriston, setting pitfalls traps for carrion-feeding species beside the carcass of a red deer (Cervus elaphus) and beating leaf-eating beetles out of the branches of trees on to a white sheet, where they could be identified. Other species of beetles live in dead wood, or in association with particular fungi, so there’s a whole range of habitats to be searched as part of a survey like this.

During the course of the survey, Richard identified 340 species on Dundreggan, although he cautions that this is likely to be well under the total beetle diversity on the Estate, which he estimates could realistically be in the region of 600 species. Given the size of Dundreggan and the comparatively short time he spent working there, many species will have been missed, and we will be probably be adding to the number that have been identified for many years to come, as we look at specific areas of the Estate in more detail.

Out of the species that were recorded, 3 of them are classified as being ‘Rare’, 4 as being ‘Nationally Scarce’ and a further 29 as being ‘Notable’. One of the ‘Rare’ species (Bolitophagus reticulatus) is associated with the tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) that grows on dead birch trees (Betula spp.). The beetle larvae live inside the hard, woody structure of the fungus, and after pupation the adults chew their way out, leaving characteristic 5 mm diameter exit holes in the fungal fruiting body.

Richard made a number of recommendations and observations in his report, and these included emphasising the importance of the riparian area beside the River Moriston and the flowering meadows there; the relative lack of dead wood (which is an important habitat for many species) on the Estate; and the need for planting more of the flowering trees that are rare on Dundreggan at present, particularly hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), wild cherry (Prunus avium) and rowan (Sorbus aucuparia). As with the other biodiversity survey reports, we’ll take account of these recommendations in our planning for forest restoration on Dundreggan, and will incorporate them, as appropriate, in our ongoing revisions to the management plan for the Estate.

Alan Watson Featherstone

 

Return to Biological Diversity on Dundreggan

Pages about beetles on this site

• Beetle Survey in Glen Affric 2004
• Beetle Survey in Glen Affric 2005
• Beetles occurring in Glen Affric
• Beetle Survey on Dundreggan in 2007-08
• Beetles occurring on the Dundreggan estate
• The Large Poplar Longhorn Beetle Saperda carcharias in the Scottish Highlands
• Byctiscus populi, a leaf rolling weevil dependent on Aspen