‘Call of Nature’: The Secret Life of Dung.  Pelagic Publishing.  2017 292pp ISBN 978-1-78427-105-3

There can be no better person to produce a book on dung that Richard Jones who has spent his life peering into poo and getting his hands dirty. Whilst reviewing this book in the Cevennes mountains, France, I actually had the large dung beetle illustrated on the cover at my feet pushing a large round dollop of wild boar poo across my woodland path, a first for me and easily identified from the book. I suppose that not everyone will rush to read this book, but there are a surprising number of entomologists and coleopterists in particular who will be fascinating by the factual information teased out of the detritus of the forest and field floor by this inquisitive and talented entomologist author. The book is illustrated throughout with beautiful line drawings, and, probably a first, a unique visual key to the variety of poo seen when out and about in distant parts, the remit is worldwide (whales to wombats, though not exhaustive). The illustrator is Verity Ure-Jones.  All the characters involved in recycling poo, such as flies (so many species), midges, gnats, beetles (so many species) including scarabs are described and illustrated, including many involved on the periphery of poo. Only Richard Jones could separate out all the species into an orderly collection. The illustrations of beetles associated with dung makes an invaluable key. All is in black and white, which is probably good, as the thought of all the poo in colour would be too much. There is an excellent index and glossary.

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‘Beetles’ No. 136 in the Collins New Naturalists Series. ISBN 978-0-00-814952-9. 482pp

Richard Jones is the go-to person in the UK for beetles, and this book which germinated as a suggestion in 2014 eclosed as the most remarkable book on coleoptera four years later. It is the first on beetles in the New Naturalists Series which has been much overdue. With 4,118 species of beetle in the UK this indeed is mostly a UK-centric review of the richness of beetles, with occasional forays into beetles of the world where there are 1-3 million waiting to be discovered.  Raised in the shadow of the South Downs with his current ‘manor’ of Sydenham Hill and Dulwich Woods, Jones introduction to beetles has not left any piece of dung, bark, compost, fungus matt unturned in his quest for his favourite prey. He has delivered excellent chapters on ‘What is a Beetle’, ‘Beetle Variety’, ‘Life Histories’, quirks, oddities, flight and general natural history. The fine morphological details remind one of Imm’s General Textbook of Entomology’. There are colour photographs throughout, which is always pleasing in these new NNS editions, especially so with Penny Metal’s superlative images. Species decline has inevitably caught up with Jones as there are species that he writes about that he has either never seen or rarely seen, Blaps ‘maybe on its way out’ or Platyrhinus – not seen – or oil beetles –only one seen.  There is a large and very useful section on British beetle families each illustrated and fully described. A full index, references, keys and glossary complete this fabulous book which is to be recommended to all entomologists and naturalists.

Biodiversity in the T&C EIA Regs 2017 – about people and quality of life

Notwithstanding the good if not adequate guidance in BS4040 on biodiversity in 2013, the 2017 T&C EIA Regulations breathe new life into the consideration of biodiversity. Whereas the concept of biodiversity was often an add-on partner in a planning application, the new T&C EIA Regs have included it in Schedule 4 as a necessity. It has included it with other topics that were not always top of the agenda, such as assessing significant effects on population, human health, biodiversity, land soil, water and landscape.  Not only are the adverse effects of people an issue in EIA consideration, the effects on people is now recognised with a requirement to deal with, including objectivity and bias. These new Regs still defer to the Habitats and Birds Directives (92/43/EEC(a)  & 2009/147/EC(b) respectively, as per Section 2(b)) for the applicability of the various habitats and species, but they bring together for the first time a combined obligatory assessment of all four matters, under 2(e). This is a gold-plating exercise under Regulation 26. There is thus a specific requirement ‘to assess the interaction between the factors’ listed (a-d) as ‘population and human health’ (sub-paragraph (a)) all the habitats and species in the two EU Directives named above (sub-paragraph (b)), ‘land, soil, water, air and climate’ (sub-paragraph (c)) and ‘material assets, cultural heritage and the landscape’ (sub-paragraph (d)). Biodiversity is thus centre-stage in the EIA consideration of any plan or development and has to be dealt with ‘in the round’ with all these other matters which add up to a considerate approach to living in a better environment and improved quality of life for people.

Asian Hornets – latest works

Feltwell, J. 2016. Identification features of the Asian Hornet. BBKA News. The newsletter of The British Beekeepers’ Association. No:223 – March 2016. 81-83.

Feltwell, J. 2017. The arrival of the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina Lepeletier, 1836 into the UK in 2016. Antenna 41 (2) 59-64.

Jersey Evening Post, 25 October 2017. Asian hornets: Praise for ‘model approach’.https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2017/10/25/asian-hornets-praise-for-model-approach/  about John Feltwell’s visit to Jersey

UKELA’s meeting (25 Sept) on adapting to the changes brought in by the New EIA Regulations was kindly hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills. The ‘2017 Regulations’ came into force on 16 May 2017 [1] and the evening event was a revealing and forthright résumé by experts in the field:  Josh Fothergill (Fothergill Training), Rufus Howard (Royal HaskoningDHV) and Harriet Peacock (Tower Hamlets).  What was made abundantly clear was that EIA in future should be scaled down from the excesses of paperwork that has escalated over the last ten years: the EIA for Hinckley ran to 35,000 pages. Less than 1% of the yearly 400,000 planning applications are EIAs and they vary enormously in quality.  The way ahead is cutting through traditional EIAs to deal with ‘likely significant effects’ (LSE) simplifying planning applications for LPAs who are restricted by resources and manpower.  Anything to assist LPAs deal with the paperwork is welcome, to speed the process through planning applications; a pragmatic approach is recommended, covering all relevant topics and LSE.  Getting back to lightening paperwork via FONSI  (Finding of No Significant Impacts) was promoted as a way to suggest alternative ways of dealing with ecological issues.  Scoping should deal with which schedules  to cover, and screening should screen subjects in or out.  There was more on following the ‘spirit’ of the law rather than the ‘letter’ of the law. The ‘2017 Regulations’ now have a definition (there was none in the 2011 regulations).  Project areas for consideration now  have been brought back to 0.5ha from 15ha (1.1(a)).  The ‘2017 Regulations’ still have passages which are open to interpretation such as ‘where appropriate’.  There was a call to have more SEAs in the UK (to fall in line other countries in Europe). There is a brand new section on Biodiversity in Schedule 4 combining other disciplines such as assessing significant effects on population, human health, biodiversity, land soil, water…landscape, a sort of ‘gold-plating’ cross-referencing with Regulation 26 exercise to cover all important issues that also includes objectivity and bias.  

John Feltwell’s book on ‘Meadows, A History and Natural History’ even more relevant today