Of the 25 species of dragonfly that have been recorded in Sussex in the 21st Century, probably the commonest (and certainly the most recorded) is the Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum). In total the SxBRC has 7500 records for this species, 4502 of which have been gathered since the year 2000. The Common Darter though is just one of seven Sympetrum species that have been recorded in the UK, all but one of which have been recorded in Sussex.
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.
Of the 25 species of dragonfly that have been recorded in Sussex in the 21st Century, probably the commonest (and certainly the most recorded) is the Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum). In total the SxBRC has 7500 records for this species, 4502 of which have been gathered since the year 2000. The Common Darter though is just one of seven Sympetrum species that have been recorded in the UK, all but one of which have been recorded in Sussex.
27 July 2018
Black-shouldered Shieldbug (Carpocoris purpureipennis), first recorded in Sussex in 2017.
Photo: Derek Binns
Black-shouldered Shieldbug (Carpocoris purpureipennis), first recorded in Sussex in 2017.
Photo: Derek Binns
Shieldbugs are the most popular and well recorded group of the Heteroptera. They are large, readily identifiable in the field and evident throughout the summer months. With only around 50 species if you include the squash bugs, they are not too tricky to identify and online resources such as British Bugs are a real help. A few years ago Graeme Lyons, the Sussex County Recorder for Heteroptera, started to talk to the SxBRC about producing an atlas of shieldbugs but rather than go for a book, we thought an online resource would be more suited, that way it can evolve as the Sussex shieldbug recording community also grows. The Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre with the help of Mark Robey (a freelance GIS specialist) put the atlas together with Graeme providing the text and most of the imagery. It covers all the Sussex shieldbugs, squash bugs, rhopalids and a few more families in there as a bonus.
The Atlas of Sussex Shieldbugs allows you to click on the 10, 2 or 1 km square you are recording in and see what species, if any, have been recorded there and how many records have been made of them. It also allows you to click on individual species and read a bit about them including their identification including a photo, how to find them and their status in the country and in Sussex. These distribution maps will grow with time as more records are made and a more complete picture of our counties’ fauna is made.
Click here to view the Atlas.
iRecord is the best way to record your Shieldbug sightings (Graeme is County Verifier) and your records will not only quickly get to the SxBRC they will also be entered into the data in the Atlas
18 May 2018
Treble Brown Spot - not the Pagham one but our millionth moth...
Treble Brown Spot - not the Pagham one but our millionth moth...
Of the 6,834,363 (at time of writing) records we have in the database, 3,008,242* of those are of birds, 1,075,751 are of flowering plants and, as of today, there is now a third taxonomic group with more than one million Sussex records - moths! Over the past few weeks we have collated and imported approximately 80,000 new records (the vast majority of which were collected in 2017) and thanks to the avid moth recording community in Sussex, the total now stands at 1,000,873. Every one of these records has also been passed through the rigorous scrutiny of our dedicated County Recorder for Lepidoptera, Colin Pratt.
I had hoped that record #1,000,000 would be of some spectacular or particularly scarce species but having checked the import logs it would appear that record #1,000,000 is of a Treble Brown Spot Idaea trigeminata - not particularly scarce or spectacular but undoubtedly an attractive little moth - It was recorded at Pagham Harbour last June.
*Sorry, birds - I’m a bit moth obsessed and didn’t notice you passing the 3 million records milestone.
