Isorhipis melasoides (Laporte, 1835) (Eucnemidae) breeding and probably established in the British Isles

摘要

On 17 June 2006, PJ (with MP) photographed a beetle on the bark of a moribund beech Fagus sylvatica in the Windsor area (Berkshire VC 22) that defied identification using the usual keys to the British fauna. A photograph was sent to HM who identified it as lsorhipis melasoides (Laporte). The tree was near to the edge of a roadside plantation of no great age. The area appeared to have been planted around the middle of the 20~(th) Century, as a mix of oak Quercus, beech and Norway spruce Picea abies (most of which had died and many of the trees had subsequently fallen down). The beech trees had not fared very well either; they were obviously stressed, and quite a few were moribund with vertical fissures of rot.