I have been looking at a couple of draft tetrad (2km x 2km) density maps recently for the moths of Cheshire, one for records, the other species. The records density map shows where there has been a lot of effort with a light trap (>10000 category) and where there has been very little – SW and C Cheshire and patchy in places like the extreme NE. The species map is similar but with slightly finer detail. We will probably keep both when we publish the species maps. They demonstrate that the county wide pattern of species richness will probably always correlate best with effort.
A few of us have been visiting blank tetrads for several years now, mainly in the autumn to record leaf miners and these density maps show how successful we have been, with just two tetrads, which are 100% in VC58 Cheshire still without any records. These were SJ66V - Minshull Vernon and SJ68M – West of the M56 – M6 junction, at Grappenhall. Daytime visits have now been made to both these tetrads, SJ66V on 29/9/2018 produced 42 species and SJ68M on 20/10/2018, 60 species, so a good start to recording in both.
- SJ66V - Minshull Vernon - 29/9/2018
- SJ68M – Grappenhall - 20/10/2018
There are still several tetrads on the county boundary which lack any records, although a couple have been visited this autumn and others, which are 100% in VC58, only have the one or two species recorded in them, so there are still plenty of discoveries to be made in the county.
Regards
Steve