Not one – but two rare species found at Kent reserve

Rare bumblebee and critically endangered thistle September 2011: Rare plant and insect species have been spotted at Kent Wildife Trust's Darland Banks nature reserve close to the Medway towns.

The very unusual sight of a mound of red star-thistles playing host to brown-banded carder bumblebees was recorded by Plantlife project manager Richard Moyse, on a visit to the chalk grassland site last week .

Red-star thistle is a priority speciesThe red star-thistle has only a couple of sites in Kent, and nationally is regarded as critically endangered. It has been identified as a Priority Species by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). Flowering from July to September, this biennial grows to a height of up to 70cms with reddish-purple flower heads surrounded by sharp spines.

The brown-banded carder bumblebee is one of 24 species of bumblebee found in the UK - a number of which have declined massively as a result of the loss of extensive areas of flower-rich grassland and the intensity of modern farming methods. Many of their favoured food plants have become scarce, and with farmers cultivating right to the edges of fields, places to construct nests have all but disappeared.

This is encouraging and rewarding newsHedgerows, too, as well as being in short supply, are cut back so regularly that they have ceased to be safe nesting sites.

However, the species hangs on in North Kent, where it is associated with coastal grassland and brownfield sites (eg the Trust's Holborough Marshes reserve near Snodland), and, to a lesser extent, it has appeared in chalk grassland such as at Queendown Warren near Hartlip.

Alison Ruyter, Medway & Mid-Kent Downs Area Warden for Kent Wildlife Trust, said: ‘It is so encouraging and rewarding to see that our conservation management programme is producing such tangible results and real wins for wildlife.'

Richard Moyse, project manager for Plantlife's nearby Ranscombe Farm Reserve, added: ‘This is a classic demonstration that protecting wildlife starts with protecting wild plants, and habitats rich in wild plants. Without the wild plants, we wouldn't have the insects, and without insects, we wouldn't have much other wildlife at all.'

Darland Banks nature reserve is managed by Kent Wildife Trust in partnership with the owners Medway Council.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/kent-bumblebee.html