Fauna of the Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago 45 km (28 mi) off Land's End, Cornwall. Little of the fauna on, above or in the seas surrounding the isles was described prior to the 19th century, when birds and fish started to be described. Most records of other animals date from the 20th century onwards.

Historical overview

There are few pre-19th-century records for animals. William Borlase published The Natural History of Cornwall in 1758, commenting on the number of rabbits, and Jonathan Couch's A Cornish Fauna gave an account of some the animals known in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. In the 19th century, following the fashion of the time, birds were shot and stuffed, especially by Augustus Smith and his predecessors on Tresco. Egg collecting was allowed and in the Natural History Museum there are, in the collection, forty-five eggs taken between 1880 and 1936 from Annett, even though it was a bird sanctuary.[1] Newspapers recorded some of the fish caught but there was little recording of other groups of animals.

It was in the 20th century when regular accounts can be found for other animal groups following visits from naturalists who often published their observations in the scientific literature. For example, William Bristow visited the islands on three occasions from 1927 to 1934, recording spiders including on some of the uninhabited islands.[2] The Cornwall Bird Watching and Preservation Society published bird reports from the 1930s onwards and the Isles of Scilly Bird Group (founded 2000) took over publishing their own annual reports – Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review – which included other groups of animals such as the diptera.

Planarian (flatworms)

Fourteen species of terrestrial flatworms have been recorded in Britain and Ireland with five found on the Isles of Scilly. Only three or four of the fourteen species are native with two recorded on Tresco.[3][4]

  • The Australian flatworm (Australoplana sanguinea) – a flatworm from Australia and New Zealand and first found on Tresco in 1960. Now found in many parts of Britain. Feeds on earthworms.
  • Australopacifica coxii – a flatworm from Australia and found on Tresco in 1975. Feeds on earthworms.
  • Kontikia andersoni – found on Tresco in 1984; it is native to Australia and/or New Zealand.[5]
  • Microplana terrestris – recorded on Tresco (1982). Native
  • Microplana scharffi – recorded on Tresco (1984) and St Mary's (1985). Native

Opiliones (harvestmen)

Odonata

The Atlas of the Dragonflies of Britain and Ireland published in 1996 listed just three species; blue-tailed damselfly, common darter (both breeding residents) and the migrant hawker. The pools can be slightly brackish at times and only species that can tolerate these conditions can establish populations on the islands.[9]

Steve Jones compiled a list which was published in the Cornwall Dragonfly Group Newsletter (numbers 6–8) and the list below is based on that information. In comparison, at that time, Cornwall had 23 breeding species and 28 species recorded.[10]

  • Common blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) – in 1994 an ovipositing female was at Lower Moors, St Mary's.
  • Blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans) – can tolerate brackish conditions and breeds on St Agnes, St Mary's and Tresco.
  • Migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta) – increased sightings since the mid-1990s on St Agnes, St Mary's and Tresco.
  • Southern hawker (A. cyanea) – recorded on St Mary's in October 1992 and October 1996 and from Tresco also in October 1996.
  • Common hawker (A. juncea) – Great Pool, Tresco in October 1992.
  • Emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) – individuals seen on St Mary's, September 1992 and August 1996.
  • Green darner (A. junius) – At least two individuals (male and female) were found on St Agnes on 10 September 1998 (just one day after the first record for the Western Palaearctic in Cornwall, the previous day). There was a male on St Mary's during the following week and a female on Tresco on 30 September and the next day.
  • Golden-ringed dragonfly (Cordulegaster boltonii) – October 1996 on Tresco.
  • Red-veined darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) – two males on Great Pool, Tresco, May 1992.
  • Yellow-winged darter (S. flaveolum) – one seen on St Mary's during the ″Invasion Year″ of 1995.
  • Common darter (S. striolatum) – breeding on St Agnes, St Mary's and Tresco.

Orthopteroid

The Orthopteroids have been recorded in Scilly since 1890 and specialists have visited the islands since 1989 to give, what is considered, complete coverage of these insects. The list below is taken from Orthopteroid Insects on Scilly (2001) with additional records referenced.[11]

Orthoptera (crickets and grasshoppers)
  • Oak bush-cricket (Meconema thalassinum) – one seen on Tresco in 1960.
  • Great green bush-cricket (Tettigonia viridissima) – resident on St Mary's and Tresco and probably an Allerød pioneer.
  • Dark bush-cricket (Pholidoptera griseoaptera) – one seen on Tresco in 1906.
  • Grey bush-cricket (Platycleis albopunctata) – resident on Bryher and a probable Allerød pioneer. The numbers in the colony fluctuates.
  • Long-winged cone-head (Conocephalus fuscus) – a recent resident, discovered in 1990 on St Martin's and St Mary's, on Gugh and St Agnes in 1994 and Tresco in 1996.
  • Short-winged cone-head (Conocephalus dorsalis) – a recent resident, the first confirmed record was from St Agnes in 1992 and found on St Mary's in 1996 on Lower Moors. Three known populations including Lower Moors, St Mary's.
  • Speckled bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) – a recent resident, one was found near the Garrison on St Mary's in 1991. In 2000 a small population was found.
  • House cricket (Acheta domestica) – in 1992 found on St Mary's at Porthloo rubbish tip.
  • Mole cricket – one found on St Mary's in 1932. The specimen was donated to the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro and refound by Stella Turk in 1998.
  • Common groundhopper (Tetrix undulata) – probably introduced on horticultural material and found in Tresco Abbey Gardens in circa 1960. Since found on Abbey Pool where there is a large population.
  • Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) – there are records going back to the 19th century and one was found on St Mary's in the autumn of 1988.
  • Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria) – one found on St Mary's in October 1998.
  • Blue-winged grasshopper (Oedipoda caerulescens) – one recorded in the Victoria County History (1906) in 1903.
  • Field grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus) – a probable Allerød pioneer, resident, widespread and numerous on the Annet, Bryher, Great Arthur, Great Ganilly, Great Ganinick, Gugh, Little Arthur, Little Ganilly, Menawethan, Northwethel, Samson, St Agnes, St Helens, St Martin's, St Mary's, Tean and Tresco.

Dictyoptera (cockroaches)
  • Oriental cockroach (Blatta orientalis) – an established introduction and until the early 20th century was a widespread indoor pest. Still found in some premises on St Martin's, St Mary's and Tresco.
  • German cockroach (Blattella germanica)
  • Lesser cockroach (Ectobius panzeri)

Phasmatodea (stick insects)

Dermaptera (earwigs)

Lepidoptera

In 1992 Michael Hicks and John Hale began to regularly record the moths on St Agnes using a mercury vapour moth trap, initially in the central part of the island and later also on the coast and Gugh. Previously moths had been recorded by visitors on short stays. Their book recorded 213 species of macro moths, 171 species of micro moths and 28 species of butterflies.[14] The list below is taken from Hicks and Hale (1998) with additional records referenced.

Nepticulidae

Psychidae

Tineidae

Gracillariidae

Sesiidae

Choreutidae

Glyphipterigidae

Yponomeutidae

Plutellidae

Epermeniidae

Schreckensteiniidae

Coleophoridae

Elachistidae

Oecophoridae

Depressariidae

Gelechiidae

Autostichidae

Blastobasidae

Tortricidae

Alucitidae

Crambidae

Pyralidae

Pterophoridae

Macro moths

Possible species
  • Small white-line dart (Euxoa crypta) – A small sample of an Euxoa species was collected in 1993 and sent to David Agassiz for genitalia dissection, which confirmed that the small white-line dart probably occurred on St Agnes. It remains a 'possible' because of identification problems.

Butterflies

A Cornwall Butterfly Atlas published in 2003 listed 26 species of butterflies recorded on the islands. Eleven are resident or likely to be resident.[28]

Species list is taken from A Cornwall Butterfly Atlas with additional information referenced on the species account.

Hymenoptera

Ants

Fourteen species of ants have been recorded and ten are currently found.[33][34]

Coleoptera (beetles)

In 1931 Kenneth Blair published a list of over 500 beetles, collated from collections and published papers. Below is listed some of the species a visitor is likely to see on a visit.[lower-alpha 1][9]

  1. [36]

Amphibians

The common frog (Rana temporaria) is known from Tresco and Higher Moor, Lower Moor and Porthloo on St Mary's. Bones were identified from a 10th- to 13th-century site at Lower Town, St Martins.[2] Giant, albino tadpoles, suffering from a mineral deficiency, resulting in a form of gigantism were found in the pool on the cricket pitch, also on St Martin's.[37] Bones of a toad were found from a 17th-century occupation site at Steval Point Battery, St Mary's.[38]

Birds

As of September 2015 the number of species of birds' recorded is 437, with two, Moltoni's warbler (Sylvia subalpina) (2014) and cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) (2015), awaiting confirmation from the British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee.[39]

Introductions
  • Golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) – introduced to Tresco in the 1970s, the population was reduced to one male in the 1980s before further releases.[40]

Reptiles

Slowworms (Anguis fragilis) have been present around Great Popplestone Bay on Bryher since the 1960s.[2]

Fish

Mammals

The Mammals of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, an atlas published by the Cornwall Mammal Group lists 56 species for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, but most of the mammals found in Cornwall are missing from the islands. These include European badger (Meles meles), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), stoat (Mustela erminea), weasel (Mustela nivalis) and most other small mammals such as the voles.[2][42]

(The species are listed in the order used by Harris and Yalden (2008) Mammals of the British Isles Handbook)

See also

References
  1. Robinson, P. (2003) The Birds of the Isles of Scilly. London: Christopher Helm.
  2. Parslow, Rosemary (2007). The Isles of Scilly. London: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-220151-3.
  3. Turk, Stella (1995). "Flatworms". Biological Recording in Cornwall and the Scillies. Pool, Redruth: Institute of Cornish Studies. 1: 6–7.
  4. Turk, S M; Tompsett, P E (2009). Planarians or Flatworms (Turbellaria). In Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (2nd ed.). Praze-an-Beeble: Croceago Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-901685-01-5.
  5. "Kontikia flatworms". GB non-native species secretariat. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  6. Bristowe, W S (1929). "Spiders of the Scilly Isles". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 149–164.
  7. Bristowe, W S (1935). "Further notes on the spiders of the Scilly Islands". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 219–232.
  8. Smithers, P (2009). Spiders, Harvestment and Pseudoscorpions. In CISBFR, Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (2nd ed.). Praze-an-Beeble: Croceago Press. pp. 161–173. ISBN 978-1-901685-01-5.
  9. Parslow, Rosemary (2007). The Isles of Scilly. Insects and Other Terrestrial Invertebrates. London: Harpur Collins. pp. 286–325. ISBN 978-0-00-220151-3.
  10. Pellow, Keith (2001). "Dragonflies on Scilly". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2000. Isles of Scilly Bird Group (1).
  11. Haes, E Christopher M (2001). "Orthopteroid Insects on Scilly". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2000 (1): 178–184.
  12. Lee, Malcolm. "The Naturalised British Stick Insects". Phasmid Study Group. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  13. Lee, Malcolm (2010). "Scillonian Stick-insects". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2009: 145.
  14. Hicks, Michael E; Hale, John W (1998). Lepidoptera of St Agnes, Isles of Scilly. St Agnes, Isles of Scilly: Self Published.
  15. Kimber, Ian. "Yellow V Moth Oinophila v-flava". UKmoths. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  16. Heckford, Robert (1987). "Lepidoptera recorded in the Isles of Scilly in May, 1986". Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. 99: 268–270.
  17. French, Colin N; Atkinson, Mary G; Murphy, Rosaline J (1999). Flora of Cornwall: atlas of the flowering plants and ferns of Cornwall with notes on some species recorded on the Isles of Scilly. Camborne: Wheal Seton Press. ISBN 9780953461301.
  18. Barton, Ian. "47.004 Epermenia aequidentellus (Hofmann, 1867)". British leafminers. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  19. Bailey, William E (1894). "The Lepidoptera of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly". Trans. Penzance Nat. Hist. Antiq. Soc. (1893–1894): 106–446.
  20. Scott, Mick; Lewis, Chris. "32.023 Agonopterix rotundella (Rolling Carrot Flat-body)". British Lepidoptera. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
  21. Smith, Frank H N (1997). The Moths and Butterflies of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Wallingford: Gem Publishing Company. pp. 179–217. ISBN 0-906802-07-5.
  22. Sterling, Phil; Parsons, Mark; Lewington, Richard (2012). Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland. Gillingham, Dorset: British Wildlife Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9564902-1-6.
  23. Turner, Hy J (1934). "Polychrosis littoralis subsp. annetensis n.ssp. a new form of a microlepidopteron". Entomological Record. 46: 52.
  24. Hicks, Mike (2002). "Moths Report 2001". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2001 (2): 172–4. ISSN 1474-4937.
  25. Clancy, Sean (2019). "Occurrences of the Rarer Immigrant and Adventive Moths in 2018". Atropos (Migration review 2018): 3–9. ISSN 1478-8128.
  26. Hicks, Michael E (2001). "Moths on Scilly". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2000 (1): 176–7.
  27. Smith, Frank H N (2002). "A supplement to the Moths and Butterflies of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly". Entomologist's Gazette. 53: 213–237.
  28. Wacher, John; Worth, John; Spalding, Adrian (2003). A Cornwall Butterfly Atlas. Newbury: Pices Publications. pp. 123–5. ISBN 1-874357-23-4.
  29. Hicks, Michael (2001). "Butterflies on Scilly". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2000. Isles of Scilly Bird Group (1): 173–4.
  30. Adkin, Banaiah W. "Colias edusa and Sphink convolvuli at Scilly". Entomologist. 44: 324.
  31. Penhallurick, Roger D (1996). The Butterflies of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Truro: Dyllansow Pengwella. ISBN 0951578510.
  32. Harpur Crewe, H (1877). "Entomology at Tresco and the Isles of Scilly". Entomologist. 10: 295–297.
  33. Parslow, Rosemary (2007). The Isles of Scilly. London: HarperCollins. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-00-220150-6.
  34. Cooper, Andrew (2006). Secret Nature of the Isles of Scilly. Dartington: Green Books. pp. 187–8. ISBN 978-1-903998-51-9.
  35. The red-barbed ant (undated leaflet). St Mary's: Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.
  36. Blair, Kenneth G. "The beetles of the Scilly Islands". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 4: 1211–1258.
  37. Turk, F A; Turk, S M (1977). "Amphibians". Cornish Biological Records (1).
  38. Ratcliffe, J; Straker, V (1996). The Early Environment of Scilly. Truro: Cornwall Archaeological Unit.
  39. "Species List". Isles of Scilly Bird Group. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  40. Anon (2001). "Systematic List". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2000. 1: 26–132. ISSN 1474-4937.
  41. "Islands of Scilly - A Fine Salmon". The Cornishman. No. 97. 20 May 1880. p. 5.
  42. Groves, David (2013). The Mammals of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Truro: ERCCIS. ISBN 978-1-902864-10-5.
  43. "Rare seabird makes a comeback in West Country". Natural England. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  44. Blair, W.N. (1926) Blair's White-toothed Shrew. Scillonian 5:164-5.
  45. Mawer, Dave (2001). "Bats on Scilly". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2000. Isles of Scilly Bird Group (1): 167–173.
  46. Martin, Amanda (2001). "Cetaceans in Scillonian Waters". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2000. Isles of Scilly Bird Group (1): 165–7.
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