FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT....
RARE SPECIES FIND CONFIRMED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY April 2006 |
Now that Spring is here, there are rustlings in the undergrowth and apart
from the minute inhabitants, the rustling sounds are coming from experts
who are determined to catalogue the extent of wildlife within the Radley
Lakes currently under threat. As a result of these sorties, Darren
Mann, the Curatorial Officer of Hope Entomological Collections Oxford
University Museum of Natural History has identified an especially rare
species of oil beetle which was found by one of our Ecologists, and sent
to him for formal identification.
The beetle has been identified
as Meloe rugosus, which is a Nationally Rare (RDB3) oil beetle.
An extract from Darren’s confirmation (dated 11 April 2006) of this
identification is as follows:
The Oil Beetle found at Radley was Meloe rugosus. This species is regarded
as a red data book three (rare) species in the UK, with recent records
from only five counties. In Oxfordshire area (vice-counties Oxon and Berks)
I know of the following records:
| Berkshire (VC 22) | ||
Streatley [SU58]: Fowler
& Donisthorpe, 1913: 300 (Joy, -1913) HEC coll. (Newman. 1999); Aitkin, 2001 pers comm. (2001) Dry Sandford Pit [SU49]
Whitton, 1999 pers comm. (1976) |
||
| Oxfordshire (VC 23) | ||
Shotover [SP50]: Walker,
1928: 89 (Munro, 1927) |
||
Darren J. Mann |
So, our Ecologists are out there,
searching and detailing their finds, to ensure that the site is fully
surveyed, unlike NPower's Ecological Study which is economic with the
listings of wildlife - we think that their Contractors must have visited
the wrong site - perhaps they went to Aldermaston Gravel Pits by mistake!
| Oil Beetle, discovered at Radley Lakes. | ||
 |
Just so that you know what an oil beetle looks like! |
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