Species Account for Tachydromia smithi

Essex Red Data List comment
Recorded from 2 out of 57x10km.sq. records in county

Species text
This species was first recorded as a single male from the trunk of an aspen tree in Sherwood Forest (Notts.) in 2006 (Gibbs, 2006). The species is known from Central and Western Europe, including France, Belgium and The Netherlands. Gibbs suggests that the species is either very rare and overlooked, an introduction or a recent colonist. Its discovery at Grays Chalk Pit seems to rule out the likelihood of an introduction. D.A. Smith has located another specimen in his collection under T. umbrarum collected by Chris Gibson in 2000 from Warren Farm Quarry (now known as Warren Gorge), a nearby chalk quarry part of the Chafford Hundred complex. The species probably has a metapopulation in the Chafford Hundred area and it seems most likely that the fly is rare, but has been overlooked. The species is not included in Falk & Crossley (2005) but MapMate lists a status of RDBK (Insufficiently Known). The biology of the genus is poorly known, but Gibbs states that T. smithi is one of the tree-associated species, with adults taken from various broad-leaved species, including poplar Populus and ash Fraxinus. Its larval requirements are unknown, but they are likely to be predators in leaf litter or along lake or river margins. References

Habitats

Recorded management for locations with Tachydromia smithi

Recorded substrate and hydrology for locations with Tachydromia smithi

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