By David Baldock
Despite being one of the most varied and colourful groups of insects; wasps are often overlooked and frequently misunderstood. Indeed, with the exception of a couple of species, the vast majority of Britain’s wasps go largely unnoticed. Wasps of Surrey by David Baldock explores the world of social and non-social wasps, revealing beautifully adapted predators, parasites and mimics of colour and form which will appeal to amateur and professional naturalists alike.
Surrey is probably the richest county in Britain for wasps supporting almost 90% of the British List. This abundance is mainly due to Surrey’s landscape as, with the exception of coastal habitats, the county retains extensive areas of those habitats most favoured by wasps such as lowland heath and calcareous grassland. Wasps of Surrey includes an account of all 242 species recorded to date and illustrates 112 of them on 48 colour plates. In addition to information on status and distribution, there are numerous sections on the behaviour and biology of wasps, including: conservation and biodiversity; finding wasps and how to identify them including a fully illustrated key to the aculeate families.
Wasps of Surrey depicts a largely encouraging state of affairs for a good proportion of the county’s species. In Surrey, at least, wasps are doing better now than 100 years ago. This is probably due to a mixture of climatic warming and the successful retention of their main habitats. The designated conservation status that many of these habitats possess has clearly been of crucial importance in wasp conservation. Yet, on the whole, bees and wasps remain one of the most threatened groups of British insects. Wasps of Surrey is the pinnacle of a 25 year survey and provides an important snapshot of the status of the county’s species, information which will prove invaluable when measuring the success of future conservation efforts.
The author, David Baldock is a lifelong resident of Surrey and has an extensive knowledge of the natural history of the county. He writes regularly on bees and wasps in British Wildlife and is a council member of BWARS (Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Scheme). He is also a keen botanist and birdwatcher.
Hardback with 336 pages and 48 colour plates.
Published: 2010
ISBN: 978 0 9556188 2 6