Abstract

This report presents the results of a further series of Hemiptera (true bug) and Diptera (true fly) surveys carried out on the Smithills Estate, owned and managed by the Woodland Trust. Thirteen visits were made at roughly fortnightly intervals between April and September 2022, resulting in 3944 individual records of the presence of a species in a 100m grid square on a specific date. A full list is given of the 601 species recorded and their distribution across 12 survey locations along a 1.5km transect in the valley upstream of Walker Fold. The species list is interpreted in terms of feeding guilds and habitat assemblages using the PANTHEON database, which also identifies species with a national conservation designation. Overall numerical measures of Diptera diversity are compared with earlier results from the Smithills Estate and from other locations in Lancashire and Cheshire.

#Diptera #Hemiptera #Heteroptera

Published February 2023