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The status in Essex of nationally scarce and threatened species of Coleoptera
P.M. HAMMOND
Dept, of Entomology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD
Abstract
This paper examines the Coleoptera species are provided for Coleoptera species of high
of high U.K. conservation status recorded conservation status not included in the
from the county of Essex. Changes in the reports of Hyman & Parsons (1992, 1994). A
status of Red Data Book beetles in Essex similar summary and discussion of data for
from the last century to the post-1969 period species of lower conservation status will
are compared. Essex vice-county records follow at a later date
Introduction
Data on the occurrence of species of Coleoptera in the County of Essex have been gathered and.
in some instances, published since the earliest days of serious study of the British beetle fauna.
In the first half of the nineteenth century entomologists such as F.W. Hope and E. Doubleday
collected beetles avidly in the Southend and Epping areas respectively, while others visited
various localities in the vicinity of the metropolis. Curtis (1825) included a number of Essex
beetle records in his ground-breaking work, and Doubleday (1836) published a useful list of
Epping records. Many of these and other early Essex records for notable species receive mention
in the first comprehensive manual of British Coleoptera (Stephens, 1839). The results of
nineteenth century beede recording efforts in Essex were summarised in the Victoria County
History (Harwood. 1903), and Illis remains the only published list of the county's beetle species.
In the twentieth century, beetle recording in Essex has been patchy in both space and lime. The
only published species list of note has been that of Buck (1955), supplemented and emended by
Hammond (1975). for Epping Forest. Nevertheless, the accumulation of published and
unpublished information on occurrences of beetle species in the county is substantial and has
been gathered, over the last 40 years or so, into a database that I maintain. This now represents a
substantial and potentially very useful resource for examining changes in the distribution and
abundance of beetle species over time, for evaluating the conservation value of various areas
and habitats, and for assessing future conservation needs. Some of these data have already been
employed in published work, e.g. on changes in the British coleopterous fauna overall
(Hammond, 1974), and in papers and reports on the Epping Forest area (Hammond, 1975, 1995,
1999 & in prep).
Over the same period Ihat these Essex beetle data have been collated, there have been great
advances made in the way in which distributional and other data on this insect group are
gathered and interpreted with respect to the British Isles as a whole. The production of reviews
(Hyman & Parsons. 1992, 1994) in which data on all of the scarcer British species of Coleoptera
are summarised and the species categorised in terms of their conservation status represents one
notable advance. In addition, more detailed information has recently become available for some
beetle groups in the form of 'atlases': on aquatic groups (Foster. 1981, etc). Cryptopliagidae-
Atomariinae (Johnson, 1993), Elateroidea (Clarke & Mendel, 1996), Carabidae (Luff, 1998),
and Cerambycidae (Twinn & Harding, 1999). These reviews and atlases represent an excellent
starting point for assessing local change in the status of species and for conservation planning.
However, by their nature, broad summaries such as the reviews are imperfect tools. The object
of the present paper is to provide a fuller account titan is presently available of the occurrence in
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)