Bob Merritt Coleoptera Dataset

Biological Records Centre

Description

The dataset comprises 81000 records of beetles from Britain and Ireland recorded to the end of 2016. The great majority of records are of water beetles, and site lists of these species are the most complete. Most of the rest are of rove beetles, marsh beetles and ground beetles collected from wetland margins. Over 99% of records were generated by the fieldwork of Bob Merritt. The remainder were collected by other parties, with the IDs being determined or confirmed by him.

Geographic Description

Great Britain and Ireland

Purpose

For personal interest and to increase knowledge of the distribution and status of species and of the location of key sites.

Data quality

The IDs of all species were determined either by Bob Merritt or by other people with a high level of expertise. All grid references that were not obtained by a GPS unit were determined (or checked in the case of Environment Agency data) using a graticule in conjunction with the relevant Ordnance Survey map or by means of various internet mapping programmes. Records were computerised using Recorder software.

Methods

Records of aquatic species were obtained by means of a pond-net, tea-strainer, pipette, baited bottle-trap or by direct observation. Most other records were obtained by sweeping, sieving, grubbing or pitfall-trapping.

Citation

Biological Records Centre ([Insert download year]). Bob Merritt Coleoptera Dataset. Occurrence dataset on the NBN Atlas

Rights

CC-BY

Digitised records