Water beetles are among the most diverse freshwater macro-invertebrates: in still waters, around half the species detected in a typical pond-net sample will be beetles. This makes these insects important to any understanding of wetland biodiversity.

Yorkshire has a particularly rich fauna of aquatic Coleoptera. Amongst the groups covered by this atlas, 78% of the British species were recorded in the County in 2000-2016. This reflects the unique biogeography of our region, straddling the divide between the northern and western uplands and the eastern lowlands. Saltmarshes, ponds, fens, bogs, upland tarns, rivers and springs all support their own distinctive assemblages. Numerous species reach the northern or southern limit of their English distribution in Yorkshire, so this atlas will provide a baseline to help monitor future changes. Forty-eight Yorkshire water beetles are categorised as Nationally Scarce, 17 as Near Threatened and eight as Vulnerable.

This atlas is based on an intensive survey of Watsonian Yorkshire producing just over 62,000 records for the period 2000-2016. Records are mapped for each of the 210 species at a tetrad (2 x 2 km square) resolution, providing a fine-grained picture of regional distribution.

Elmis aenea: the most widespread riffle beetle in Yorkshire

In addition to the species accounts, there is a brief history of water beetle recording in Yorkshire, a review of Quaternary subfossils, advice on survey methods, a summary of additional species recorded in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, and a chapter on wetland habitats.

The water beetles of Yorkshire by Martin Hammond

324 A5 pages, spiral bound

Published by YHEDT Publishing

Available for £6.00 + £3.50 p&p per copy from:

North & East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre

Unit 7 Hassacarr Close, Dunnington, York YO19 5SN (we can also offer collection in person from the NEYEDC office in Dunnington, by arrangement).

Tel: 01904 641631, E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please make cheques payable to: Yorkshire & Humber Ecological Data Trust or email for information on payment by bank transfer.

The Ichneumonidae is the largest family of insects in Britain, with well over 2,000 species ranging in size from individuals 3" long with 3" ovipositors (which is big for a British insect!) to tiny ones only 1/10" in length. The family is divided into a large number of subfamilies and the larger ones are further divided into tribes. There has been a consistent trend to elevate tribes to the status of subfamilies, and this continues.

Dr Gavin Broad, the ichneumon specialist at the Natural History Museum in London, has prepared a key which will allow an ichneumon to be placed in its appropriate subfamily: https://www.brc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/resources/ichneumonidae-subfamily-key.pdf

In this introduction are listed some of the published identification keys that can be used to identify British ichneumons. In addition, there are a number of unpublished translations of key works published in French, German and Russian. The publication of a key naturally generates more interest and work on that group, with the result that additional species are added to the British list (or described as new to science). The listed works may not, therefore, always be entirely up to date. As a result, it is more than usually important to build a collection so that specimens can be compared with correctly-named vouchers and any insect which does not match the decriptions well should be retained, as it may be something new.

Dr Broad has also prepared a checklist of British ichneumons: https://bdj.pensoft.net/article/9042/download/pdf/

In the past the subfamilies were arranged in what was believed to be the most natural arrangement but there are several ideas about what this should be and this checklist avoids the question by arranging the subfamilies, then the tribes, then the genera and finally the species in alphabetical order.

Ichneumons have been included in several locality lists, such as:

Coldwell, J.D. (1999) “Insects of the Barnsley Area.” Sorby Record Special Series 12

Skidmore, P., Limbert, M. & Eversham, B.C. (1987) “The Insects of Thorne Moors First Supplement.”

Walsh, G.B. & Rimington, E. (1956) “Natural History of the Scarborough District.”