The Distribution in Scotland and Ireland of Calliphora uralensis and Its Occurrence with andSeparation from C. vicina (Insecta: Diptera)Author(s): Lewis DaviesSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 22, No. 6 (Apr., 1987), pp. 241-244Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25539150 .

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Ir. Nat. J. Vol. 22 No. 6 1987 241

pools on Iniskea Is. Co Mayo; Eurycercus glacialis Lilljeborg (Duigan and Frey 1987): and the present species. This indicates that an intensive survey of these habitats might prove to

be of considerable interest. It is known that some are of importance as far as wintering birds are concerned and it may be that these have had an influence on the crustacean fauna. A detailed account of the copepods in a wide range of these habitats is in preparation (JNRG).

We are very grateful to Mr Peter Stafford and Miss Lai Fong Tho for technical assistance.

REFERENCES

Duigan, C. & Frey, D. G. (1987) Eurycercus glaeilis. a chydorid cladoceran new to Ireland. //-. Nat. J. 22:

Dussart, B. (1967) Les copepodes des eaux commentates d'Europe occidentale. 1: Calanoides etHarpacticoides. Boubee et Cie, Paris.

Fryer, G. (1985) The ecology and distribution of the genus Daplmia (Crustacea: Cladocera) in restricted areas: the

pattern in Yorkshire. J. nat. Hist. 19: 97-128.

Grainger, J. N. R. (1976) Further records for the fairy shrimp Tanymastix stagnalis (L). // . Nat. J. 18: 326.

-(1979) Diaptomus wierzejskii in temporary water bodies in Co Mayo. //-. Nat. J. 19: 372.

Gurney, R. (1909) On the freshwater Crustacea of Algeria and Tunisia. Jl R. microsc. Soc. 273-305.

-(1931) British fresh-water Copepoda. 1. Ray Society, London.

Herbst, H. V. (1955) Ein neuer deutscher Calanoide (Crustacea Copepoda). Diaptomus rostripes n. sp. Zool. An:.

155: 248-253.

Kiefer. F. (1974) Revision der cxane us-Gruppe der Gattung Diaptomus (sens, restr.) (Crustacea Copepoda: Calanoida). Zool. An:. 192: 279-288.

-(1978) Copepoda non-parasitica: 209-223. In lilies, J. (ed.) Limnofaima Europaea. 2nd ed. G. Fischer

Verlag, Stuttgart.

Young. R. (1975) Tanymastix stagnalis (L.) new to Britain and Ireland. //-. Nat. J. 18: 203.

-(1976) Tanxmastix stagnalis (Linn.) in County Galway. new to Britain and Ireland. Proc. R. Ir. Acad.

76B: 369-378.

THE DISTRIBUTION IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND OF CALLIPHORA URALENSIS AND ITS OCCURRENCE WITH AND SEPARATION FROM C. VICINA (INSECTA:

DIPTERA)

Lewis Davies

Zoology Department, University of Durham, South Road, Durham

The trapping in 1985 of a single female Calliphora uralensis Villeneuve on Errigai mountain, Donegal, prompts the assembly of all the records for the British Isles that I can find for this rarer blue-bottle. The records listed below amount to 32 localities (including two cases where some doubt exists), and range from Unst, the northernmost of the Shetland Islands to Puffin Island, Co Kerry in SW Ireland. After the list of records, the distributional

picture produced is discussed. The commonest and most widespread blue-bottle in the British Isles appears to be C.

vicina Robineau - Desvoidy (= C. erythrocephala Meigen in most of the literature). Recent

findings on the occurrence of this species alongside C. uralensis in northern and western localities are given, together with a restatement of the characters enabling reliable

separation of adults of the two species.

Calliphora uralensis records

After the locality name, 4-figure grid references are given where appropriate, followed

by date, collector's name and literature reference where the record has been published. Finally, when it is known, the location of the specimen(s) is given in brackets with these abbreviations:? BMNH ? British Museum (Nat. Hist.) London; RSM ?

Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; UMB ? Ulster Museum, Belfast; ZD ?

Zoology Department, University of Durham; NMI ? National Museum of Ireland.

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242 Ir. Nat. J. Vol. 22 No. 6 1987

Scotland

Shetland Islands: Unst, Baltasound HP6209. Mainland, Lerwick HU4741, Whiteness HU3945. All

three records based on specimens ex Parmenter collection (BMNH). Fair Isle. 1 male, Sept. 1905. W.

Eagle Clarke, (RSM). 6.8.1966, W. Moreby (BMNH).

Orkney Islands: Orkney Mainland. 1 female, Finstown, HY 3614, 16 July 1962, L. Davies (ZD).

Hoy, Brims Ness. ND2887. 30 June 1980. Stuart Ball; Burn of Forse ND2494 6 July 1980. Stuart

Ball.

Caithness: 2 miles SE of Thurso, ND1566, July 1978 (BMNH); Halkirk, arable farm N of Stemster Loch, ND1945 (Macleod and Donelly 1956). Sutherland. Loth village, on E coast midway between

Helmsdale and Brora. NC9610; Reay Forest, near Lochmore, NC3237. Both records in Macleod and

Donelly (1956). Loch Hope, NC4760, 5 July 1938. J. E. Collin (BMNH); Invernaver, NC7160, 8 June 1963 (RSM); Tongue NC5958, 1938. J. E. Collin, cited in Wainwright (1940); a further

specimen in BMNH has an indistinct label that I read as 'Eilean Ron'. This locality may be the island,

Eilean nan Ron, at the mouth of Tongue Bay at NC6466, therefore a doubtful locality. Wester Ross.

Keanchulish, just N of Ullapool NH1299 (Macleod and Donnelly 1956). E Inverness with Nairn, vice-county. A record from an unspecified locality in the Great Glen is placed in this vice-county by Macleod and Donelly, based on a specimen seen by F. I. van Emden,

presumably in BMNH. No specimen so labelled has been located there (1985), neither was such a

locality given for C. uralensis in van Emden (1954).

Outer Hebrides; (1) St Kilda group. Hirta. Village Bay, many adults 26 July-3 August 1931. D. Lack,

cited in Edwards and Collin (1932) (BMNH); also June and July 1905, J. Waterston, cited in

Grimshaw (1907) as C. erythrocephala; also collected in numbers, up to 600m on Mullach Mhor July 1970, cited in Davies (1981) (ZD). Boreray, many specimens, July 1980. H. Wright (ZD). (2) Isle of

Lewis. Garynahine NB2432. 4 July 1906 N.B. Kinnear (RSM); Ballallan village, nr Loch Erisort,

NB2921, Macleod and Donelly (1956). (3) Flannan Islands, one female, 1904 (RSM). (4) South Uist, 2 males, June 1910. P. H. Grimshaw, Loch Druidibeg NNR, Grogarry, NF7740, 2 females,

10.7.1966, A. R. Waterston, cited Waterston (1981). Specimens for S Uist are all in RSM. (5) Barra,

1 male, indecipherable locality, 14.7.1935; Craigston NF6601, 1 male, 1.6.1977. A. R. Waterston,

both specimens in RSM.

Clyde Islands, Ailsa Craig, July 1969, many specimens, M. Nelson, cited in Nelson (1980), obtained

again, bred from gannet carcass, August 1980, together with C. vicina (ZD). Isle of May, outer Firth of Forth. 1 female, 6.7.1958, E. C. Pelham-Clinton (RSM).

Ireland

Donegal. Slieve League, G5676. 7.7.1975. A. G. Irwin; Errigal mountain, E face at 487m altitude,

B9321, 1 female in bait trap, late June 1985. L. Davies (NMI).

Co Mayo. Inishglora, F6061, 1 male, 1 female, 13.7.1974, A. G. Irwin. Cited in Irwin (1976)

(UMB).

Co Kerry, Puffin Island. C. O. Berg, cited in Berg (1977).

C. uralensis was long thought to be confined in Britain to extreme north and north-west Scotland including the Outer Hebrides, as concluded from the Blow-fly survey of Macleod and Donelly (1956). Later records included above show that the species is more widely distributed. In particular the four records from Ireland show that the species occurs along the

W side from Donegal in the N to Co Kerry in the SW. The confirmed occurrence of C. uralensis on Ailsa Craig suggests that it occurs along the whole of Scotland's W coast from N to SW also. The gap in the records between Barra at the S end of the Outer Hebrides, and Ailsa Craig perhaps reflects lack of collecting rather than a true absence of C. uralensis from the intervening coast and islands. Similarly the species should be sought in the coastal

regions of Galloway, Antrim, Londonderry and adjacent coasts and islands such as Rathlin,

intervening between the record for Ailsa Craig in Scotland and the nearest Irish record from

Errigal in W Donegal. The finding of a specimen from the Isle of May, in the outer Firth of Forth constitutes a

considerable range extension southwards on the east side of Scotland, since the record from

Loth near Brora, Sutherland, was previously the furthest S for the E coast of Scotland. Here

again further collecting remains to be done to see to what extent C. uralensis occurs on the

lone coast between Sutherland and the Firth of Forth.

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Ir. Nat. J. Vol. 22 No. 6 1987 243

While checking records and specimens in preparing the above list of localities for C. uralensis a main concern was confirming separation of this species from the commonest and

most widespread blue-bottle in Britain, namely C. vicina. (It so happens that this is the

species most like C. uralensis, and characters enabling reliable separation are briefly outlined later.)

The frequent occurrence of C. vicina in the same northern and western Scottish localities that constitute the known range of C. uralensis in Scotland was noteworthy. On

Hoy (Orkney) C. vicina is common (records of Stuart Ball); in the Royal Scottish Museum

collections, Edinburgh, specimens of C. vicina exist from many localities in Fair Isle,

Orkney, Sutherland, Argyll and Outer and Inner Hebrides, including the Flannan Islands where the species was taken at the same time as C. uralensis. In the renewed collecting in

1981 of this species from Ailsa Craig, the species was bred in hundreds from a gannet carcass which also yielded equivalent numbers of C. vicina. (Precautions had been taken to

prevent any blowfly egg-laying on the carcass during its transport from Ailsa Craig to

Durham.) This shows that the two species not only co-exist in the same localities in Scotland but also can colonize the self-same larval medium, the closest possible co-habitation by separate blow-fly species.

The case of the St Kilda group that constitutes the outermost limit of blow-fly distribution in the British Isles is interesting. On Hirta the main island, but still only about 3 X 2km in size, various collectors from 1905 to 1970 found only one Calliphora species, and in abundance, namely C. uralensis. In 1980, much to my surprise, extensive collecting by

H. Wright on the small outlying St Kilda group island of Boreray produced many C. vicina as well as C. uralensis, a further case of their co-existence.

In view of the above therefore it seems that in western Scotland at least, there are few or no localities where C. uralensis occurs in isolation from the ubiquitous C. vicina. On Hoy (Orkney) records by Stuart Ball show that both C. vicina and C. vomitoria Meigen occurred

with greater frequency than did C. uralensis. It is noted here that no records or specimens for C. vomitoria have been located for the Shetlands, but this way well not indicate true

absence of the species there, but rather lack of collecting. In Ireland, C. vomitoria (but not as it happens C. vicina) has been taken up to the

possible limit in the NW, namely at Dunfanaghy, Donegal. It would appear again that in Ireland as in Scotland, C. uralensis does not in any sense replace the common C. vicina or

C. vomitoria in the N and W of the country, but may co-exist with them.

Nearly all C. uralensis records, other than those from islands, are for sites on the coast and very near to sea level. The three exceptions, for sites some distance inland and at

appreciable altitude are:? Reay Forest, near Lochmore, Sutherland (about 5km from the sea off Loch Glendhu and about 70m altitude); Halkirk, near Stemster Loch, Caithness

(some 11km inland from Lybster, and about 135m) and that for Errigal mountain, Donegal (about 14km inland and 487m altitude). The last named record particularly shows that the

species does occur on higher mountain land and some distance inland. The lack of collecting effort inland and at higher altitudes may well have led to a misleading impression that C. uralensis is a mainly coastal and low altitude species.

Finally, the separation of C. uralensis adults of both sexes from those of the ubiquitous C. vicina should be discussed. The combination in C. uralensis of partly yellow cheeks with a black basicostal scale and mainly infuscated prothoracic spiracle exists only in that

species. The pale cheek area (the anterior part of the whole cheek) often shows variable

degrees of infuscation that is affected by reflections depending on the angle of view. In this

species the edge between the pale area and the dark posterior part of the cheek tends to run

irregularly anteriorly towards its ventral edge, so that the pale cheek ends at the mouth edge about half way between the posterior (occipital) end and the anterior end of the mouth edge when the head is viewed ventro-laterally.

In C. vicina the basicostal scale is always at least partly yellow, the prothoracic

spiracle always yellow with at most little infuscation, while the posterior edge of the pale cheek meets the mouth edge much nearer the posterior or occipital end than half way along

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244 Ir. Nat. J. Vol. 22 No. 6 1987

its length to the anterior end. Most C. vicina specimens also show less reflective infuscation

of the yellow cheeks than in most C. uralensis.

Acknowledgements

I thank Drs Pont (BMNH, London) Shaw and Rotheray (RSM, Edinburgh) for

facilitating examination of specimens of Calliphora in their care. Also thanks are due to Drs

Stuart Ball (N.C.C., Peterborough) and Anthony Irwin (Castle Museum, Norwich) for

kindly placing records at my disposal.

REFERENCES

Berg, C. O. (1977) Some Diptera collected in the Isle off Co Kerry and the mainland of Kerry and Cork, Eire.

Entomologist's mon. Mag. 112: 75-76.

Davies, L. (1981) Additions to the list of Diptera for Hirta, St. Kilda group, Scotland. Entomologist's mon. Mag. 116: 216-218.

Edwards, F. W. & Collin, J. E. (1932) A revised list of the Diptera of St Kilda. Entomologist's mon. Mag. 68:

263-266.

Grimshaw, P. H. (1907) On the Diptera of St Kilda. Ann. Scot. nat. Hist.: 150-158.

Irwin, A. G. (1976) Calliphora uralensis Villeneuve (Diptera; Calliphoridae) new to Ireland. Entomologist's mon.

Mag. Ill: 62.

Macleod, J. & Donelly, J. (1956) The geographical distribution of blowflies in Great Britain. Bull. ent. Res. 47:

597-619.

Nelson, J. M. (1980) Some invertebrates from Ailsa Craig. W. Nat. 9: 9-16. van Emden, F. I. (1954) Tachinidae and Calliphoridae. Handbk Ident. Br. Insects. 10(4a): 1-133.

Wainwright, C. J. (1940) The British Tachinidae (Diptera). Second Supplement. Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 90:

411-448.

Waterston, A. R. (1981) Present knowledge of the non-marine invertebrate fauna of the Outer Hebrides. Proc. R.

Soc. Edinb. 79B: 215-321.

FIRST RECORDS OF EUDENDRIUM GLOMERATUM (CNIDARIA: HYDROIDA) IN BRITISH AND IRISH

WATERS, AND TAXONOMIC COMMENTS Ferdinando Boero

Istituto di Zoologia, Universita di Genova, 16126 Genova, Via Balbi 5, Italy

Paul F. S. Cornelius

Zoology Department, British Museum (Natural History), London SW7 5BD.

Before the work of Picard (1951) species of the athecate hydroid genus Eudendrium

Ehrenberg, 1834 (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Family Eudendriidae) were distinguished on characters of the gonophores and on gross morphology. Picard and some later students of the genus (Millard 1975, Watson 1985) have regarded the morphology as varied and given

more weight to nematocyst characters, which seemed Jess labile. This has Jed to the

recognition of the species E. glomeratum Picard, 1951, which in morphology and colony habit closely resembles E. ramosum (Linnaeus, 1758). Records suggest that both species are near-cosmopolitan, but E. glomeratum has not previously been reported from the British Isles. Material in the British Museum (Natural History) collections indicates that both occur in British and Irish waters.

Identification

Recent redescription of the two species has been provided by Watson (1985) and of Eudendrium glomeratum alone by Boero et al. (1986). In general appearance E.

glomeratum closely resembles the better known species E. ramosum. The latter has been

nominally redescribed from gross features many times (for example in Hincks 1868, Allman 1872, and Cornelius and Ryland in press), B. E. Picton (pers. comm.) considers the Hincks and Allman descriptions may refer to separate species. However, these and most

other previous descriptions have lacked accounts of the distribution and identity of the

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