Species recording at Abbotts Hall Farm, Great Wigborough
Beetles (100 species)
One of the more disturbing finds was of several individuals of the Death Watch Beetle Xestobium
rufovillosum discovered on the windowsill of the EECOS office and subsequently elsewhere in the
older parts of the farmhouse. We are assured that the building was treated during its conversion to
offices and that a few individuals should be expected in a building of this vintage!
About 30 of the species are water beetles from the various ponds around the farm, including the
Nationally Scarce (Nb) Berosus affinis, a further nine are ladybirds, including an Orange Ladybird
Halyzia 16-guttata attracted to an outside light. The remainder are mostly staphylinids and carabids
captured from the arable field margins by BUZZ and from various other areas by Nigel Cuming.
Noteworthy species include the Nationally Scarce (Na and Nb, respectively) carabids Tachys
scutellaris and Pterostichus longicollis and the Nationally Scarce (Nb) staphylinid Achenium humile.
Nigel Cuming also recorded the Nationally Scarce Bombadicr Beetle Brachinus crepitans (Nb)
from the seawall, an interesting record for this locality.
Arachnids (77 species)
The harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus © P.R. Harvey
Mosl of the 67 spider and harvestman species were determined by the BUZZ projecl team, but
three pseudoscorpions and eight mites (all gall causers) were among the others recorded under this
category. One of the pseudoscorpions is an as yet unidentified species of the genus Lamprochernes
which was caught exhibiting phoresis, i.e. hitching a ride on a fly. This is a common means of
dispersal for a number of the British pseudoscorpions. One of the spiders, Scotina gracilipes,
caught by BUZZ and confirmed by Peter Harvey, turned out to be new for Essex, and is a species
usually associated with dry heathland or woodland.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)