Now that the national
distribution of the stag beetle Lucanus cervus has been determined (PTES
National Surveys 1998 and 2002), we are looking for ways to monitor stag beetle
populations so that we can maintain them. Several monitoring methods have been
trialled over the period 2000 - 2002, both in Suffolk and elsewhere.
Of these, the Road-Kill Survey, carried out by Suffolk volunteers, including SNS
members, in 2000, proved to be a very effective way of obtaining data that give
a measure of the beetles’ abundance. The method used in the successful Suffolk
Road-Kill Survey trial has been adopted by the People’s Trust for Endangered
Species (PTES) and is being used this year, on a limited scale, across the
beetles’ range in Britain. The PTES is the Lead Partner for the conservation of
the beetle in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.
In Suffolk we are
repeating the Road-Kill Survey, so that the results can be compared with those
obtained in other counties, and for overall statistical analysis. To date, 20 Suffolk
volunteers are counting dead stag beetles found on the road –, so called
road-kills (the unwitting victims of pedestrian and vehicular traffic). Each volunteer
is surveying a different 500m route in a locality where stag beetles have been
seen dead on the road in the past, or where populations of stag beetles are known
to occur, over the adult stag beetle season from June to August.
I am indebted to
all the surveyors and especially to SNS members who have volunteered to take
part. The information that you are gathering will be used to plan a national
monitoring scheme for this threatened insect. Thanks are also due to the PTES,
especially Clare Bowen, for producing The Stag Beetle Road-Kill Survey booklet
of instructions from my word-processed material.
Pitfall and aerial traps are being trialled again, both in Suffolk and elsewhere. Pheromone and live beetle lures are being used, but other attractants are also being tried. Results to date have been disappointingly negative.
Investigations (led by the author) are ongoing.
A Stag Beetle Biodiversity Action Plan Progress Report 2003 has been written. This is filed at the Suffolk Biological Records Centre (SBRC) and can be viewed by arrangement with the Suffolk Biodiversity Officer, Harriet Shackle.
To quote from In leaf, the Newsletter of the Anglian Woodland Project (AWP),edited Gary Battell, Woodland Advisory Officer at Suffolk County Council, ‘To the uneducated eye it looks like a forest of tree stumps, a higgledy-piggledy assortment of dead oak and other species. To a stag beetle it looks like the most desirable residence at Kew. At least that’s what Simon Cole, manager of Kew's conservation area is hoping. The loggery in Kew’s woodland zone is intended to attract Britain’s largest terrestrial beetle, Lucanus cervus’. Similar to the at High Woods Country Park, Colchester (White Admiral 42), but on a grander scale, this stag beetle habitat has an additional feature – a giant model of the insect – which is sure to attract the visitors to Kew Gardens.Loggeries provide a sanctuary not just for stag beetles but also for many other species. ‘Kew’s mycologist has already recorded almost 50 species of fungi growing on the (wood), including one never seen before at Kew and one that has never before been seen in Europe’.
Please continue to send me annual records of stag beetle sightings, even if you have sent records from the same site in previous years. We need to know whether stag beetles are still present, or whether they have declined, or perhaps have disappeared. Where possible, please give: the sex of the insect, the name of the place where it was seen, e.g. Ipswich, Spring Road (a grid reference is helpful) and the day. month and year of the record.
The author gratefully acknowledges the support received from the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species. I am indebted also to Deborah Harvey and Dr Alan Gange, Royal Holloway College, University of London, and Mark Gillingham of Suffolk College, for their help with visits, equipment and chemicals. Thanks are also due to the people of Bentley who have once again allowed me to place traps in their gardens, orchards or woods and visit these daily. As ever, I am grateful to all those who have contributed their records of stag beetle sightings either directly to me, or to the SBRC. Last, but not least, I thank Gary Battell and RBG of Kew for giving me permission to quote from RBG’s article ‘Kew Create Beetle Mania! Can You?’ (In leaf: Issue 3 – Spring, 2003 p. 10)
Colin Hawes -
Suffolk Lead Partner for the Stag Beetle Lucanus cervus.
People’s Trust for Endangered Species Stag Beetle Steering Group
© 2003 Suffolk Naturalists' Society