Record number of beetles recorded

Our County Recorder for Beetles; Michael Darby has collected and named 20,763 beetles in the county since 5th August 2006 in Langley Wood and Wylye Down National Nature Reserves (NNR) whilst conducting a survey for Natural England (previously English Nature)! By 2004 there was just over 9,000 beetle records for the county with a total of 1561 species.

“The beetles were caught in pitfall traps at Langley Wood NNR and Wylye Down NNR where I have a contract with Natural England. The purpose of this contract is simply to find out what's there.

Most were dung beetles Anoplotrupes stercorosus and Geotropes stercorarius. Interestingly although the number of traps involved in this survey is only 36 compared with 108 in the last survey between 5/6 Aug - 19 Nov 2006 14,871 specimens of these species turned up as opposed to 677 over the same period last time! If any one has any ideas as why this might be (the number of deer in both areas is about the same as far we know) then I and Natural England would be interested to hear them”.

Beetle recording is quite difficult with even the easiest species being constantly mis-identified. Visit Michael’s County Recorder page to find out more about beetles in Wiltshire and how to contact him for help with identification.