Where To Find Beetles Back to county index  Back to species index

Cambridgeshire

Bradycellus csikii [RDB I] (Carabidae) has been found on clay soils at Welches Dam. In the British Isles it is otherwise only known from Suffolk.

Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve is the single most important site for rare Coleoptera in the county, with a long history of detailed entomological study. The rare carabid Bembidion octomaculatum [Extinct] (Carabidae) is said to have been taken at Wicken Fen in 1926, but the record is still unconfirmed. The nationally endangered carabids Pterostichus aterrimus [RDBI] and Panageus crux-major [RDB1] have not been found at Wicken for many years, but the small carabid Trechus rivularis [RDB3] still occurs. Other nationally rare beetles which have occurred at Wicken in the past, but are almost certainly now extinct there, include Chlaenius tristis [RDB2] (Carabidae), Spercheus emarginatus [RDB1] (Hydrophilidae) and Lixus paraplecticus [RDB1] (Curculionidae). In the case of the last species, its food-plant the Greater Water-parsnip Sium latifolium, has now disappeared from the Fen. The longhorn beetle Oberea oculata [RDB1] (Cerambycidae) was recorded at Wicken Fen in 1984 but not since; this elusive species should be sought on flowers and sallow Salix bushes between June and September. Wicken also supports a rich water beetle fauna, including Agabus undulatus [RDB2], and Dytiscus dimidiatus [RDB3] (both Dytiscidae), and Hydraena palustris [RDB2] (Hydraenidae).

Another excellent site is Chippenham Fen National Nature Reserve. In the British Isles, two species of aleocharine rove beetle have only ever been found at this locality: Gyrophaena pseudonana (in October 1967) and Gyrophaena rousi (on the fungus Polyporus squamosus in June 1999). However, it seems rather likely that these small and easily overlooked species are in fact more widespread than the few records would suggest.

County recorder: vacant.

Further reading

FRIDAY, L. (ed.) 1997. Wicken Fen: the making of a wetland nature reserve. Harley Books.