Rare records for Wiltshire

Whilst on Morgan’s Hill looking for butterflies, Steve Covey, the Dragonflies and Damselflies County Recorder, found an unusual bee-fly on Morgan’s Hill Nature Reserve. It was the Dotted Bee-fly Bombylius discolor which is quite scarce and the first time it has been recorded on this reserve.

We only have three other records for this species including records for Blackmoor Copse Nature Reserve and at Savernake Forest SSSI; it can be found in a variety of habitats and deciduous woodlands seem to be preferred.

Steve also received a phone call from Julie Thomas who was visiting Devizes from Hampshire reporting twenty Scarce Chasers on the ponds at Caen Hill Locks. Scarce Chasers are, as its name implies, scarce, and the River Avon in Wiltshire is one of its strongholds. If the records were correct it would be the first record away from the Avon and on ‘still’ water as it prefers stretches of river with slight to moderate flow with tall emergent vegetation.

After spending the afternoon checking all the lock ponds Steve found a total of five Scarce Chasers and a mixture of males and females. It is the first time that the Scarce Chaser dragonfly Libellula fulva a British Red Data Book species, has been recorded at this spot.

According to Steve Covey, it is likely that climate change is behind its appearance, because as temperatures warm up dragonflies are using habitats they previously considered to be unsuitable.

“A well-used canal like the Kennet and Avon makes good hunting but poor breeding grounds for dragonflies because there is so much turbulence. But at Caen Hill I found young newly emerged scarce chasers, which indicates they are actually breeding there. The ponds provide a suitable habitat for them as they receive flowing water but are much quieter than the main stretch.”

With our help Steve is recording and mapping the exact whereabouts of dragonflies and damselflies around the county to create a Dragonfly Atlas. The Wiltshire Atlas will become a baseline against which any changes in dragonfly populations can be mapped to aid their conservation.

The impetus for creating this Atlas has been the lack of comprehensive coverage of Odonata records across the county, and the project has been launched this summer to fill in the gaps. The completion of a Dragonfly Atlas for Wiltshire is a target in the newly revised Wiltshire Biodiversity Action Plan, a blueprint for restoring wildlife in the county.

The Cotswold Water Park (CWP) in the north of the county is also creating its own Atlas and results from both will feed into a five-year programme run by the British Dragonfly Society to map the distribution of Odonata around the UK. This will culminate in the publication of a national dragonfly atlas in 2013.

Gareth Harris, Biodiversity Officer of the Cotswold Water Park Society, agrees that climate change is bringing new species into the UK from continental Europe, and allowing species already here to move further north.

In 2006 both he and Steve recorded a new species for the CWP and for Wiltshire, the Lesser Emperor, which comes from the Continent and in 2007 were able to confirm that it was actually breeding on one of the lakes.

“We are finding that some species are responding to climate change by becoming less fussy about where they live,” says Gareth.

Steve would love to receive your sightings of any dragonflies and damselflies. If you would like to send sightings, photos, even larvae shells then please contact steve.covey@ntlworld.com.

The sightings will be sent in to us at the WSBRC, so that a truly comprehensive record of these beautiful insects is built up.

Find out more about Steve’s work as the County Recorder for dragonflies and damselflies.