Who can resist the Pantaloon Bee (Dasypoda hirtipes)? With its extraordinary, beautifully coloured hind legs, it is a strikingly handsome insect. It also shouldn’t be hard to miss.
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.
Who can resist the Pantaloon Bee (Dasypoda hirtipes)? With its extraordinary, beautifully coloured hind legs, it is a strikingly handsome insect. It also shouldn’t be hard to miss.
3 July 2020
Female White-legged-Damselfly
Photo: Simon Linington
Male White-legged-Damselfly
Photo: Simon Linington
Distribution of White-legged Damselfly Platycnemis pennipes records in Sussex
Source: SxBRC
Female White-legged-Damselfly
Photo: Simon Linington
Male White-legged-Damselfly
Photo: Simon Linington
Distribution of White-legged Damselfly Platycnemis pennipes records in Sussex
Source: SxBRC
The British Dragonfly Society is asking for your sightings of White-legged Damselfly to help inform trends due to concerns of this species declining in the UK.
White-legged Damselflies are mainly found along slow-flowing lowland rivers and streams, and occasionally on canals or ponds. As the name suggests, they have obviously pale legs, males are a pale blue with black markings and females are cream with black markings. There is more information on how to identify them from similar blue damselflies on the British Dragonfly Society website (or there’s this pdf: https://british-dragonflies.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/WLDI-ID-guide-2020-1.pdf)
The Dragonflies of Sussex (2004) noted that it is “predominantly found across the High and Low Weald, where it can be locally abundant, and well distributed along sections of the upper Arun and mid-Sussex Adur. There is an isolated presence at Chichester gravel pits.” Since then, there have been records from significantly more squares covering both the High and Low Weald and, notably, the far east of Sussex. This may well relate to consolidation and expansion of range but could possibly be explained by improved observer coverage.
If you see one, please submit records to iRecord with a photo if possible, or email it to bobforeman@sussexwt.org.uk
