Peter Chandler hunts for fungus gnats
It’s perhaps not the news walkers in the Highlands would want to hear: a rare species of midge previously unknown in Britain has been discovered.
But the good news is, it doesn’t bite.
The find is one of several on the ‘lost world’ Dundreggan conservation estate near Loch Ness, run by Trees for Life.
The discovery of the non-biting midge, Chironomus vallenduuki, by entomologist Peter Chandler last August brings the total of UK biodiversity firsts found at the estate in Glenmoriston in Inverness-shire to 11.
Other key findings during the charity’s 2016 survey season included two rare gnats whose larvae feed on fungi. One of these, Sciophila varia, is only known from four other UK sites. The other, Mycomya nigricornis, is only known in the UK from a handful of Scottish sites and had not been seen since 1990.
Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s founder, said: “Dundreggan is a special part of the Caledonian Forest that keeps on revealing beautiful, interesting and rare species.
“The surprisingly rich wealth of life in this corner of the Highlands highlights the importance of concerted conservation action to protect and restore Scotland’s wild places.”
Members of the public can volunteer to help plant half a million trees at Dundreggan as part of Trees for Life’s restoration of the Caledonian Forest. The charity’s rewilding activity also includes working for the return of rare woodland wildlife and plants, and carrying out scientific research and education programmes.
The knotty shining claw or pseudoscorpion
Mr Featherstone said: “Our latest discoveries add to an already remarkable range of rare and endangered species found at Dundreggan – some of which were previously unknown in the UK or Scotland, or which were feared to be extinct.”
The charity found two parasitic wasps for which there are very few Scottish records and, for the first time in Scotland north of the River Tay, a pseudoscorpion called the knotty shining claw.
A micro-moth, the small barred longhorn Adela croesella – only documented at three other locations in Scotland, and never before this far north – was found by volunteer Richard Davidson.
Mr Davidson had been taking part in one of Trees for Life’s volunteer conservation weeks at Dundreggan when he found the moth.
Those of an itchy disposition may want to avoid the area, where new species for the UK discovered on the bug-haven estate in recent years include three sawflies, an aphid two aphid parasitoids, three fungus gnats, and a mite.
A parasitic wasp
Dundreggan has also revealed the second-ever British record of a waxfly species, a golden horsefly only seen once before in Scotland since 1923 and the juniper shieldbug, thought to be the first Highlands record.
In total, more than 3,300 species have now been recorded at the forest restoration site. At least 68 of these are priority species for conservation.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the site can find details on the charity’s website.
