| Two of the UK's three Brachychaeteuma species
are extremely difficult to determine to species level and
require an adult male to be able to do so. Even then,
there is great variability in the male gonopods and
unfortunately, the record of a female from an
Attenborough garden in early January 2016 (Sexton, T.) remains only as Brachychaeteuma
sp. A second female was collected from
Pleasley Vale in February 2016 (Whiteley, D.) and the frustration
continued when yet another female was recorded from a
Mansfield Woodhouse garden in March 2017. But a
succession of records from a Mapperley garden (Pendleton, T.A.
and Pendleton, D.T.) since December 2016, eventually culminated
in the finding of a male two years later, which finally
allowed us to identify the species occurring there at
least, as being Brachychaeteuma bagnalli. |
