COMPARISONS WITH OTHER ENGLISH FORESTS AND PARKS
Differences in amount and quality of available data make direct com-
parisons between the beetle faunas of Epping and other forests difficult.
However, I have incorporated in Tables 6 and 7 some readily available data
concerning the occurrence in four other localities of most of the more notable
forest species which are to be found in Epping Forest. The data for Windsor
"Forest" rests on the work of Donisthorpe (1939). Windsor is perhaps the best-
known, coleopterologically speaking, of the English Royal Forests; however,
Donisthorpe included in his account a large and diverse area, covering much of
the countryside around Windsor, Swinley Forest and other wooded areas, as
well as Windsor Great Park and Windsor Forest proper. Records for species
additional to those listed by Donisthorpe (l.c.) are available, but do not greatly
alter the picture of the Windsor beetle fauna which he provided. The data for
Sherwood Forest is probably more comparable in amount and quality with that
for Epping, although later records would undoubtedly substantially supplement
the list of species provided by Carr (1916 and 1935), on which the entries in my
tables are based. Dunham and Staverton are two old parks, for which published
records are less complete, although the available lists of species directly
associated with mature and overmature trees are unlikely to be greatly
lengthened by subsequent work.
In terms of total numbers of species recorded, then, to some degree
dependent on the intensity of past collecting efforts, Epping is surpassed only by
Windsor Forest (approaching 2,000 species) and the New Forest (possibly
exceeding 2,000 species). However, both of these forests are larger and,
especially in the case of the New Forest, include a greater variety of non-forest
habitats. Nevertheless, both Windsor and the New Forest undoubtedly support
greater numbers of woodland species of Coleoptera, and greater numbers of
species characteristic of Old Forests than does Epping. There are very few
Epping Forest beetle species which are not to be found in one or both of these
other forests. It will be seen from Tables 6 and 7 that some 12 of the species
listed here as Old Forest indicators, and known from Epping Forest, have not
been found at Windsor. On the other hand, considering only those species
which may be regarded as the best indicators of Old Forest conditions (Grades 1
and 2), more than 40 of those known from Windsor have never been seen in
Epping Forest.
Although probably of secondary importance in comparison with Windsor
Forest and the New Forest, the beetle fauna of Epping compares well with all
other Old Forests, only Sherwood possibly equalling it in the number of Old
Forest species. However, the characters of these two forests differ markedly,
Sherwood possessing a particularly rich fauna of species associated with old
oaks, while the Epping list includes a number of species, mostly those of
generally southern distribution in England, or associated with beech, which are
unknown at Sherwood. Information concerning other Old Forest areas is largely
uncollated (see Harding, 1977, for information sources concerning the beetle
faunas of Moccas Park, Herefords, and Shute Park, Devon). The lists of Old
54