Almost thirty years ago, Mark Gurney was introduced to the world of entomology by Brian Eversham, Chief Executive at the Trust. Mark is now an ecologist who helps people understand and manage habitats for some of our less well-known groups. He likes discovering insects and the places where they live, and has a particular fondness for weevils. Recently he has been visiting some Trust reserves to find out more about the many species we look after that often go undetected:
Gamlingay Wood
The log pile near the entrance attracted some good beetles associated with decaying wood, of which the star was one of the elusive scarlet click beetles, Ampedus quercicola. The Huntingdonshire woods and the New Forest are its headquarters in Britain, but I don’t think it has been found here before, and I was very pleased to see it. Nothing else that unusual on the pile, but a decent selection of nice saproxylic invertebrates. Polydrusus flavipes was my other highlight. This is a scarce weevil that I have only seen once before. It is associated with various broad-leaved trees and shrubs, like most of its relatives, but is much less common.
