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Rare jewels discovered in Epping Forest: Agrilus sulcicollis
- a new jewel beetle for Essex
JEREMY DAGLEY
Forest Ecologist. Corporation of London. Epping Eorest
The jewel beetle Agrilus sulcicollis was discovered in Walthamstow Forest on 3rd June
1997 during a tree and shrub "beating" survey being carried out to look for gypsy moth
caterpillars.
This little bullet-shaped beetle (it can be
between 6 - 8.5 nun long) was found by Hugh
Evans of the Forestry Authority after being
beaten out of a young oak tree on the edge of
Mill Plain, Walthamstow Forest. The
identification was made by a leading
coleopterist, our County Recorder Peter
Hammond of the Natural History Museum.
It is only the second record of this species in
the UK. The first individual was found in
1994 by Trevor James of Hertfordshire
Biological Records Centre, on some oak logs
in a wood in Hertfordshire (James 1994). The
Epping Forest specimen has since been put in
the Museum collection as the 'Type Specimen'
for the UK.
Jewel beetles are inhabitants of dying and
dead wood within trees. They bore their way
in and their larvae occupy the cavities just
underneath the bark. Their exit holes through
the bark are a characteristic TJ' shape and Illis
makes surveying for them relatively
straightforward (eg Hackett 1995). Agrilus
sulcicollis being one of the smaller jew7el
beetles doesn't bore ven' deeply into the wood,
and scores shallow channels under the bark,
living on relatively small diameter branches or
young trees.
Jewel beetles like it warm. Of the thousands of
species in the world there arc only around
dozen in this country. Agrilus sulcicollis has
been well known from France for many years
but until 1994 had never been recorded here. It
may have been overlooked or misidentified,
but it seems more likely that it is a recent
arrival and is another invertebrate messenger
of global climate change. It certainly fits into
an increasingly familiar pattern of insect range
expansions. For example, its larger RDB
cousin, A. pannonicus, which is also metallic
green but with the addition of sky-blue dots on
its wing cases, has spread dramatically across
the south-east. One study found it in at least
33 sites in London alone (Hackett 1995). It is
most certainly worth keeping an eye open for
any of the jewel beetles and just this year
(1999) A. sulcicollis was recorded by Peter
Hammond in the Forest further north at Bam
Hoppitt. Chingford. I suspect it is now
widespread around the London area.
References
IIACKETT, D., 1995. The jewel beetle Agrilus pannonicus in the London area. The London Naturalist 74:
161-164.
JAMES, TJ., 1994. Coleopterists. 33-35
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)