Biodiversity – Global Assessment  May 6^th 2019

The 28 authors released their preliminary summary of the Global Assessment on Biodiversity … on 6 May 2019 stating that the final report is expected later this year and will run for 1,500 pages. This multi-authored tome has also had guidance from 19 other experts from their Management Committee. The experts are drawn from several countries around the world so this is an agreed collective response representing the state of the world’s biodiversity. However the countries for which data has come from appears to be restricted to the UK, USA, Trinidad & Tobago, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Japan, South Africa, Hungary, Venezuela, France, Germany, Netherlands and Philippines. Missing are many countries including Russia, Japan, China, several European countries and Australia.

Key findings – in their words – are

‘Nature across most of the globe has now been significantly altered by multiple human drivers, with the great majority of indicators of ecosystems and biodiversity showing rapid decline.’

‘Habitat Loss and deterioration have reduced global terrestrial habitat integrity by 30%,, thus…ca. 9% of the worlds est., 5.9 million terrestrial species, more than 500,000 species, have insufficient habitat for long-term survival , are committed to extinction with decades, unless their habitats are restored.’

‘Estimated – 8 million animal and plant species (75% of which are insects), around 1 million are threatened with extinction.’

Wetlands: ‘85% of wetlands has been lost.’

Forests: ‘32 million ha of primary or recovering forest were lost between 2010-2015.’

Coral: ‘Approximately half the live coral cover on coral reefs has been lost since the 1870s’

Vertebrates: ‘Human actions have already driven at least 680 vertebrate species to extinction since 1500.’

Amphibians: ‘More than 40% of amphibian species are currently threatened.’

Insects: ‘Global trends in insect populations are not known but rapid declines have been well documented’  ‘tentative estimate of 10% threatened by extinction.’

The overall summary looks very sombre

Bumblebees, An Introduction. By Nikki Gammans, Richard Comont, S.C. Morgan and Gill Perkins. Bumblebee Conservation Trust. 2018. 174pp.

Edited by four bumblebee experts, this is a major work from eight contributors including the editors. Put together by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BCT) it does what ‘it says on the tin’, it is a great introduction, possibly the best introduction to these appealing insects for the general public. The book is extensively illustrated in colour throughout, including the works of 18 photographers including those of entomologist Steven Falk. This book presents a bewildering array of imagery that maps all the finer points of bumblebee biology that make identification easier.  The book has seven chapters: introduction, pollination, decline, gardens, collecting, ‘the big seven’ (buff-tailed, white-tailed, red-tailed, common carder, early, tree and heath) and the major chapter on Identification.  Bumblebees are here classified into four groups, red tails, ginger tails, yellow tails and cuckoo bees, a refreshing classification that departs from earlier books, but very effect. Each of the 24 extant species of bumblebee (three have already gone extinct) is clearly shown as colour bar diagrams of body bands, photographs in the wild showing particular characteristics (noted and shown on the photographs), life cycle through the months and a distribution map. This is a very exciting compilation and will be a great success for BCT. The book will be thumbed through by eager entomologists, hymenopterists and amateur naturalists – it is small enough to go into a field jacket or knapsack for identification and it has a glossary, index and further information.

Wildlife Matters is proud to have been part of a team of 28 experts whose planning application by Weston Homes Plc for 1,300 units in Norwich was recommended for approval on 09 December 2018. The application was rich in  biodiversity enhancements incorporating sensitive connectivity links to this drab part of the city effecting an ecological gain for the future.

‘Suomen Kimalaiset’ (Finnish Bumblebees) by Seppo Parkkinen, Juho Paukkunen and Ilkka Teräs, 2018. Docendo Oy, Jyväskylä  176pp. Hardback. ISBN 978-952-291-454-5   35 euros  In Finnish.   

This delightful hardback book on Finnish bumblebees is somewhat of a challenge to English readers, and to this reviewer, as it is all in Finnish but the 150+ colour photographs give away the subject matter being discussed. It is a serious scientific work on the 37 species of bumblebee in Finland with details on all species.

Each species is photographed with 1-4 images of the insect on a flower alongside a photograph of the sort of habitat in which it is found, and descriptions of the species. Size of queens and workers are given. A map showing distribution is useful and it highlights where species distribution is unclear, or in some species that occur through most of Finland but with absence in the far north which is Lapland.  Nine species fall into this category, and British readers will be familiar with B. distinguendus, hortorum, pascuorum, hypnorum, jonellus, bohemicus and sylvestris. Of the cuckoo bumblebees (loiskimalaiset) there are eight species in Finland the most widespread B. bohemicus the most restricted being B. barbutellus.

There are only four species that are found throughout Finland (including Lapland), B. hypnorum, pratorum, jonellus and cryptarum. The least distributed and rarest are B. consobrinus, hyperboreus, barbutellus, and there are two species that have not been seen for a few decades: B. patagiatus and wurflenii. The Buff-tailed Bumblebee, B. terrestris is familiar to British naturalists but it is only in the south of Finland as with B. subterraneus, humilis, sylvarum, campestris and magnus – the latter being unknown in Britain & Ireland which has 22 known species.

Bombus lappinicus, monticola, alpinus, pyrrhopygus, balteatus, and hyperboreus are only found in Lapland, several only amongst the often bleak and rocky landscape of the north. The whole of Finland is actually covered with rocks and lakes with meadows in between, and there has been clearly much scope for bumblebee evolution

since the last ice age. One can get a feel of Finland through the habitats that bumblebees frequent (as shown in the book). The book has a good introduction to these insects, their pests, parasites and look-alikes, their food and their habitats; and the book is complete with references and an index; it also remembers bumblebee experts William Nylander, Kasvitieteilijä Olavi Hulkkosen, Metsänhoitaja Rabbe Elfving and Dosanti Antii Pekkarinen.

What will assist field ecologists are the comprehensive colour keys for identification of all the bumblebee species which runs to 18pp and is full of the familiar colour-banded bodies of males and females together with line drawings and coloured artwork showing fine details. However the book is not easily popped into a pocket.  One can only marvel at the colour diversity that has evolved in bumblebees in the yellows, red-orange, browns and of course black and white. This book has succeeded in cataloguing bumblebee diversity and will stand as the definitive tome of the group for a long while.

‘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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