This report provides the results of a series of heteroptera and diptera surveys carried out in the Delamere Forest itself and some of the satellite woodland and bogs. A full list is given of the 460 species recorded and their distribution across the surveyed area. This species list is interpreted in terms of habitat assemblages using the PANTHEON software recently made available by the Biological Records Centre. This showed a strong representation of wet woodland species in the sample. The national assemblages of peatland and decaying wood species were much less well represented but included a higher proportion of rare or scarce species. Of particular note was the find in 3 new locations of the hoverfly Orthonevra intermedia: Delamere remains the only known British location for this species following the original discovery in 2003. The Red Databook cranefly Idioptera linnei was found at Abbots Moss for the first time since 1969, only the second record in the Delamere area since then. Both these species should benefit from the restoration of the Delamere mossland.

Ref. True Flies

Ref. Diptera

Ref. Bugs

Published October 2017