Records of Aquatic Heteroptera from Northern Ireland and Co KerryAuthor(s): Brian NelsonSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 25, No. 9 (Jan., 1997), pp. 342-343Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25536061 .

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342 Ir Nat. J. Vol. 25 No. 9 1997

Table 1. Species and numbers of fleas obtained from field mice and bank voles from Co Limerick.

Ctenoph- Hystricho- Dorato- Malaraeus Rhadino

thalmus psylla psylla penicilliger psylla nobilis talpae dasyenema pentacantha

No. of hosts 6 9 6 9 6 6 9 6 9 Field mice

Sept 1995 11 ? l ? ? ? _ _ _ i

Feb 1996 10 21 ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Oct 1996 28 ? ? ? 1 ? ? ~ ? ?

Bank voles

Sept 1995 16 231? ? ? ? _ _

Feb 1996 24 8 ? 2 1 ? 13 8 4 Oct 1996 57 17 42 4 4 2 8 15 7 6

suggested (Fairley 1984 op. cit.) that, as the bank vole has almost certainly been introduced into

Ireland and very likely on one occasion only, the point of introduction was likely to be not far from

the centre of its geographical range (which is in the south-west), and therefore probably somewhere

along the southern border of the Shannon Estuary. I further argued that the coincidence of the

restricted distribution of M. penicilliger could be taken as supporting evidence for this mooted

district of introduction of the vole. Because if M. penicilliger is indeed as restricted in its range as it

appears to be, then that is likely to be where both it and the bank vole were introduced. And whereas

the bank vole increased its geographical range, the spread of Malaraeus was limited. The alternative ? that Malaraeus colonized a restricted area of new territory with the vole and died out in the

original area of introduction ? seems much less likely. Subsequent collections of fleas from Irish

bank voles (Sleeman et al 1996 op. cit. and this study) have tended to support both a restricted

distribution for M. penicilliger and therefore the above hypothesis. R. pentacantha is a parasite of field mice and voles (George 1974 op. cit.) but, relative to other

fleas, is scarce on the bodies of its hosts. For example, in Britain on suitable hosts, Evans, F. C. and

Freeman, R. B. (1950 Ann. ent. Soc. Amen 43: 320-333) recorded it at 0.3% of total fleas recovered; R. S. George and G. B, Corbet (1959 Entomologist's Gaz, 10: 147-158) also at 0.3%; and O'Donnell (T. G. In King, C. M. 1976 /. ZooL, Lond. 180: 525-535) at 0,7%. It is generally agreed that this

species has limited jumping powers and spends most of its life in the nests of its hosts (Fairley 1984 op. cit.). However, even here it is apparently still uncommon. Cotton (M. J. In King 1976 op. cit.) noted it at 0.3% of fleas on the bodies of voles and 3,7% those in their nests. Although there has been intensive and widespread collecting in Ireland of fleas from bank voles and, especially, field mice, to date there have been only two records of R. pentacantha (Sleeman et al 1996 op. cit.): both

singletons, and one, significantly, from the nest of a field mouse "in addition to numerous"

Ctenophthalmus nobilis (O'Mahony, E. 1948 Entomologists mon. Mag. 84: 89). Thus the present finding of 26 R. pentacantha in 144 fleas (18.1%) from the bodies of rodents is remarkable.

Moreover, the species was present in all the months sampled and therefore a preponderance of it on

field mice and voles would appear to be a feature of the area rather than the result of some isolated

incident. While no connection is implied, it is perhaps worth noting that the one obviously unique feature of this area of Ireland is the presence of a bauxite refinery, on Aughinish Island, 0.5-lkm W

to NW of where these rodents were captured. I am indebted to Eoin MacLoughlin for help in trapping.

Department of Zoology, University College, Galway J. S. FAIRLEY

RECORDS OF AQUATIC HETEROPTERA FROM NORTHERN IRELAND AND CO KERRY

The distribution of the aquatic Heteroptera in Northern Ireland was given in Nelson (B. 1995 Bull. Ik biogeog. Soc. 18: 66-131). Additional records of three species are presented in this note. Unless stated otherwise all records were collected and determined by the author.

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Ir. Nat. J. Vol. 25 No. 9 1997 343

Limnoporus rufoscutellatus Latreille (Gerridae)

Armagh (H38): Lowry's Lough H9144, 17 June 1895, coll. W. F. Johnson, Ulster Museum. This is an interesting historical record as this is the first Irish specimen for which the exact

locality is known. The record is not included in J. N. Halbert's account of the Irish Hemiptera (1935 Proc. R. Ir: Acad. 62B: 211-318), an omission which also applies to a number of records from Co

Kerry (O'Connor, J. P. 1986 Entomologist's Ree. J. Var. 98: 33-35). The species has not previously been recorded from Co Armagh (Nelson 1995 op. cit.).

Fermanagh (H33): Loughanquin H058463, 25 July 1995, one amongst sparse Carex swamp on mesotrophic upland lake, field record; Watson's Lough H306505, 18 June 1996, one amongst sparse Carex swamp, field record.

Tyrone (H36): Carrick Lough H723551, 30 August 1995, coll. R. Weyl. Ulster Museum collection.

Kerry (H2): Lough Beg V894812, 24 May 1996, one amongst sparse Carex swamp in mesotrophic lake. National Museum of Ireland collection.

This record is the first for Kerry since 1958 and confirms its continued presence in the area.

Sigara venusta (Douglas & Scott) Down (H38): Strand Lough J535374, 22 April 1995, <J, Ulster Museum collection.

There are four 19th century records of this species from Northern Ireland, two in Down and one

each in Londonderry and Armagh (Halbert 1935 op. cit.: Leston, D. 1958 Entomologist's mon. Mag. 94: 26-31). This is the only recent record. 5. venusta is normally a river species and this site, which

is a brackish lagoon, is atypical. The species has not been taken on previous visits to the site so it is

likely that this individual was a temporary immigrant.

Velia saulii Tamanini (Veliidae) Published records of Velia prior to 1951 are unreliable unless there are vouchers. What was

recorded as a single species, V. currens (Fabricius), was shown to be two species, caprai Tamanini

and saulii Tamanini (Southwood, T. R. E. & Leston, D. 1959 Land and water bugs of the British

Isles. Warne, London). V caprai is a common species on running water and exposed lake shores

throughout Ireland. V saulii was added to the Irish list in 1977 when it was recorded from Lough Ree (O'Connor, J, P. & Norton, M. A. 1977 Bulllr. biogeog. Soc. 1: 20-25). It has subsequently been

recorded in Wicklow (O'Connor, J. P., Bracken, J. J. 1980 Ir. Fish. Invest. Series B 17 1978) and

Kerry (Kirby, P. 1983 Ir. Nat. J. 21: 45-47). In Ireland the species is found amongst rocks on the shores of lakes (pers. obs.).

In the Ulster Museum collections there are some Velia specimens collected by the Rev. W. R

Johnson. One card has four specimens, 2 6 6 and 2 9 2. Both females were readily identified using the key in Savage (A. A. 1989. Scientific Publication of the Freshwater Biological Association 50.) as V saulii. No attempt was made to identify the two males as this requires dissection. Written on

the underside of the card in Johnson's hand is "Lough Neagh Coney Island 24/5/[18]90". A separate label pinned below the card has the same handwritten details but has no date. Coney Island is in the

south-west corner of Lough Neagh in Co Armagh (H37), H9364. This is the first record of the

species from Northern Ireland.

Department of Zoology, Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast BT9 5AB BRIAN NELSON

SCOLOPSTETHUS GRAND1S HORVATH NEW TO IRELAND AND A SECOND IRISH RECORD OF S. PUBERULUS HORVATH (HEMIPTERA-HETEROPTERA: LYGAEIDAE)

Scolopstethus grandis Horvath

The Rev W. F. Johnson is best known for his work on Irish Coleoptera but he also collected other groups including the Heteroptera. Some Heteroptera material is contained within the part of

the Johnson collection which is held in the Ulster Museum collections. In order to document this

material, some re-determinations were required and this included the Scolopstethus specimens.

Amongst the material was one card with two specimens which lacked any determination labels.

These were both identified using the key in T. R. E. Southwood and D. Leston (1959 Land and water

bugs of the British Isles. Warne, London) as S. grandis. The specimens were sent to Peter Kirby who

confirmed the initial determination. The underside of the card has in Johnson's hand writing

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