Noble Chafer: Post-BAP records from 1998 onwards

Quality Control

The majority of records in this dataset have been collected as a result of targeted orchard surveys organised by PTES as part of the Noble Chafer BAP. Initially, surveys focussed on finding adult beetles on flowers, but this method only had limited success in locating this shy species. Most surveys from 2001 onwards looked at finding breeding sites for the species. Larvae of the Noble Chafer produce distinctive and easily identified frass which can indicate the presence of larvae in a tree without the need to damage the larval habitat. Confidence in the data is high.

Method steps

1. This dataset contains the records for Noble Chafer Gnorimus nobilis from Britain collected as part of the Noble Chafer BAP that began in 1998. Each record provides the locality and date of observation. There are a total of 401 records in the dataset. The majority of these records have been collected during field surveys organised by PTES as part of the BAP. These were undertaken by specialist surveyors including Matthew Smith, Keith Alexander, Jonathon Cooter, Harry Green and Paul Whitehead. Some records, in the form of photographs, larval frass or dead beetles, have been provided by members of the public as a result of publicity about the Noble Chafer BAP. All these records have been validated by a PTES specialist surveyor. A few published records were abstracted from entomological journals such as the Entomologists Record, Entomologists Gazette and Entomologists Monthly Magazine. The collation of these records was undertaken by the dataset administrator.

The records cover the whole of the UK, and surveys have been conducted in a number of areas where the noble chafer has not been found, but these do not show on the distribution map.