You may know the Pink Waxcap Porpolomopsis calyptriformis by its other common name: ‘the ballerina’. It is classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List with a decreasing population trend.
Welcome to the website of the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre, one of the many local environmental record centres situated around the UK. We provide environmental information services encompassing biodiversity, geodiversity and other aspects of Sussex’s natural capital. We cover the two counties of East and West Sussex, including Brighton & Hove, in South East England. We are a small but dedicated team of environmental data managers, naturalists and IT specialists.
The Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre is managed as a partnership project, hosted by the Sussex Wildlife Trust. Our partners include local planning authorities, government agencies, conservation bodies and other organisations which need access to up-to-date biodiversity information, such as water companies.
Sussex has a vibrant and energetic biological recording community with many independent recording groups and societies. By strengthening relationships with these groups, and the wider network of naturalists, ecologists and recording schemes active in Sussex, the Record Centre facilitates sharing of ever-greater amounts of biodiversity data.
You may know the Pink Waxcap Porpolomopsis calyptriformis by its other common name: ‘the ballerina’. It is classified as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List with a decreasing population trend.
22 July 2024
Ameira venthami sp. nov. (Line drawing © Yildiz & Karaytuğ 2024)
Sussex based marine biologist and taxonomist, David Ventham has recently had his work recognised by having a harpacticoid copepod named after him. Analysis of the morphology of specimens of Ameira parvula collected both off the Sussex coast and along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey by Nuran Özlem Yildiz, and Süphan Karaytuğ at Turkey’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology in Ïzmir and Mersin University has revealed a previously unrecognised species which the scientists have named Ameira venthami sp. nov. in David’s honour.
It remains to be seen whether any of the samples of unidentified Ameira spp. taken in Sussex waters by David 1993-1997 include A. venthami which he considers quite possible (indicating a possible distribution from Turkish waters through the Mediterranean to the English Channel). He gives an example of such a distribution for another species examined by his colleagues namely Ameira parvula nana (upgraded to specific rank A. nana) i.e. Cuckmere Haven, Sussex (first British record), Marseille to Turkey.
Downloads:
“Disentangling of an Ameira parvula (Claus, 1866) species complex with the description of a new species and remarks on the genus Ameira Boeck, 1865 (Copepoda: Harpacticoida: Ameiridae)“ (2.5MB )
“Harpacticoid copepods from the Sussex coast (eastern English Channel): records 1992-1997“ (1.3MB )
