Brian Eversham is Chief Executive of Beds, Cambs and Northants Wildlife Trust. This evening, we welcomed him back to talk about ground-beetles. He gave us a fascinating, inspiring, informative and entertaining insight into this group of beetles. They are about as diverse as birds in Britain; they include good ‘habitat indicators’ in almost all habitats, from mountain-tops to seashores; they have a huge range of lifestyles and behaviours; and almost all species can be identified alive, in the field, with a hand lens.
To view the recording of Brian’s talk, click on the link below and enter the passcode when prompted to do so. The recording will be available to view for 30 days. To find out more about John Wickham and his contribution to the Society see the article below from Mike LeRoy.
Passcode: T8$1pbz9
The John Wickham Memorial Lecture
John Wickham was a key member of the Society (MKNHS) for almost 50 years. He joined in 1969, the year after MKNHS was founded. A year later he was elected Chairman and held that post until 1977 when he was succeeded by Roy Maycock. In his early years with the Society, John gained agreement from Rothamsted (a research body) to set up one of their special moth-traps in Howe Park Wood, one of only two of these in woodlands throughout the UK network at that time. This involved taking each night’s ‘catch’ to Harpenden the next day so they could be identified and form part of the UK-wide monitoring of moths and other migrating species. (Rothamsted also run an extensive UK network of suction traps to monitor aphid migration). John also took a lead in negotiating with the New Town Corporation for the Society to take over woodland management of a sizeable area of Howe Park Wood, then coordinated MKNHS volunteers to do this work.
John’s own interests were mainly with insects, and he became skilled at ID of Hoverflies and other groups. When MK Development Corporation planted a barley field to become Hazeley Wood, then taken forward by The Parks Trust, John led the MKNHS to set up surveys of a wide range of its wildlife as the Wood developed. This involved dozens of MKNHS members recording a wide range of species of all Orders found in and around the Wood and a series of reports: one runs to over 100 pages. The third of these surveys was run in 2006 and included a ground-beetle survey using pitfall traps, run by six members.
In 1998 John was elected as Vice-President of MKNHS alongside Prof Alan Brook MBE. John remained an MKNHS member until his death a year before Covid, in 2019.
Mike LeRoy: MKNHS Archivist