The beetles of decaying wood in Ireland - National Parks & Wildlife ...

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Saproxylic beetles of Ireland ____________________________ About 50 species appear to have an association with ancient woodland and ancient wood pasture conditions (old growth species) – nearly 25% of the natives. This emphasises the great importance of these habitats for saproxylic beetles, and also provides an opportunity for developing conservation quality statistics for site evaluation and comparison. 8 Figure 4: Caledon Deer Park, Co. Tyrone © Keith Alexander Special features of the Irish saproxylic fauna Ireland is the global epicentre for at least one species of saproxylic beetle. The Holly Weevil Rhopalomesites tardyi was discovered new to science and named after James Tardy a prominent Dublin entomologist of the early 19 th century – as Cossonus tardii – and taken by him and N.A.Vigors in July, 1822, near Powerscourt waterfall, Co. Wicklow, under the bark of decayed hollies. Strangely, Tardy is reported as saying “I have in vain sought for it in places abounding as much in holly and in similar situations in the same country” (Nash, 1983). Today it is one of the most widespread species to be found, occurring in hedgerow and boundary stands of trees as well as old woodlands. Interestingly it has subsequently been found in Britain, although it is very localised and concentrated along the western seaboard. Its global range is restricted to offshore islands and extreme western coasts of
Saproxylic beetles of Ireland ____________________________ Europe from the British Isles to the Azores, taking in coastal north-west France and southern Portugal (eg in driftwood at Rio Arade, Portugal, 24.vi.1994, RA). The presence of the red click beetle Ampedus pomonae in Ireland but not Britain is another interesting feature of the Irish saproxylic beetle fauna. However, it is widespread on the near Continent and its absence from Britain is the curiosity rather than its presence in Ireland. A third species is also of note, Quedius lyszkowskii, as it is only known globally from Ireland and Scotland. It was described new to science only recently (Lott 2010), having previously been overlooked within Q. aetolicus by modern workers and historically with Q. puncticollis in Irish collections. Its earliest known record is from 1905 and so it seems reasonable to assume that it is long- established native – at least until evidence to the contrary is forthcoming. Important sites As already stated, the saproxylic beetle fauna of Ireland is not well-studied and undoubtedly important sites remain overlooked. The situation has been made worse by the spurious notion that rare and threatened species are primarily associated with semi-natural vegetation and therefore the parklands of historic demesnes would not be expected to be of special interest. In reality many of the historic demesnes actually protected and maintained more features of earlier Irish landscapes than did the average area of countryside. Saproxylic interest is focused on trees rather than woodlands, and sites which retain relatively large concentrations of veteran trees over time support the richest variety of saproxylic beetles. Such sites tend to be the historic demesnes rather than the ancient woodlands – themselves relatively rare in Ireland anyway. Most historic demesnes have not been assessed for their saproxylic interests – the compilation of an inventory of such sites and an investigation into the fauna present should be a high priority for invertebrate conservation in Ireland. Recent work in Northern Ireland has demonstrated the great value of historic parklands for Ireland’s wood-decay invertebrates (Alexander et al., 2007). The sites are listed in order of known importance for saproxylic beetles. Only eight areas are currently known to support more than one species of great rarity: Killarney National Park area, Co. Kerry This is the outstanding site historically, very well studied up to the early 20 th century, notably by Edwin Bullock, but very neglected in recent decades. There is an urgent need for a re-assessment in view of the management changes that have been taking place. More than 20 notable species – considerably more than any other area that has been studied; the only known Irish site for the Six- 9
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