Beetle Survey in Glen Affric 2005

Arthur Ewing with one of the window traps he used to collect beetle specimens, near Dog Falls in Glen Affric.

Silver-green leaf weevil (Phyllobius argentatus) photographed in Glen Affric during the beetle survey.

This summer Arthur Ewing, an entomologist specialising in beetles, carried out the second stage of the beetle survey which we commissioned for the Glen Affric National Nature Reserve. Whereas in 2004 he did a general survey of the woodland areas for beetles, this year he targeted his work on specific habitats used by some of the species typical of the Caledonian Forest.

Combining the results of the two years, as well as some records from other coleopterists (as people who study beetles are known), he has produced a list of 351 species of beetles found in the glen. Together with records which Trees for Life has gathered from other sources, this gives a total number of species known from Affric of about 400. This is a substantial increase from the previous figure of 155 species listed for the glen, but is still well short of the 904 species recorded at Abernethy, one of the other large remnants of the Caledonian Forest.

Here's an extract from Arthur's report on the survey:

"The publication 'A review of the scarce and threatened Coleoptera of Great Britain' provides an indication of the rarity of individual species. In Affric 32 species fall into the category Notable , four into RDBK and five into RDB3 as classified in this publication. RDB3 species are those which have very restricted populations or distributions and which are at risk while RDBK species are those which are probably also at risk but for whom insufficient data are available to make an adequate assessment. Most of the RDB species are northern and/or ancient woodland species and Glen Affric is therefore an important area of conservation.

Of particular interest are beetles of the family Ciidae which are found mainly in bracket fungi. Almost all of the Scottish species have been found in Affric including two RDB3 species, Cis dentatus and Rhopalodontus perforatus, both found previously only in Rothiemurchus forest, the former not since 1980, and Cis hispidus which has only been recorded from four Scottish hectads. We have found R. perforatus in association with Boletophagus reticulatus (RDB3) in Fomes fomentarius fruiting bodies. Cis dentatus is particularly interesting as it has been used in Scandinavian conservation studies as an 'old growth' indicator. There is thus ample evidence of faunal continuity in the Affric area probably back to the post glacial period."

Arthur Ewing

We're very grateful to Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland for funding this two year study, and the results make an important contribution to our knowledge about the biological diversity in the glen.

Alan Watson Featherstone

Beetles - related pages

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