Crustacea: Copepoda - Cerambycoidea.com

situations. These are sites where there has been sufficient habitat to maintain viable
populations throughout the historic period. There may be periodic expansions and
contractions from these refugia in response to fluctuations in climate and habitat availability,
as we have recently seen following the Great Storm of 1987, the appearance of oak dieback
disease as well as human induced climate change.
Content
My working definition for inclusion of particular species in this checklist has been that the
immature stages develop in some part of the wood-decay succession or on products of it. I
have included species which develop in un-decayed timber and bark as I regard this as the
start of the process of wood-decay.
I have included those species that are dependent on tree cavities for a variety of reasons,
including those that primarily occur in the nests of cavity-nesting birds and social
Hymenoptera, or in bat roosts. The list is not intended to cover epiphyte communities.
The central core of the list is straightforward, but there are many grey areas around the
fringes:
Fungi. Species which develop in fungi are very much a case in point. Fungi are
fundamental in the timber decay and recycling processes. But not all fungi are woodrotters
or associated with wood-rotters; some species of a particular genus or family
of fungi may be wood-rotters but others not. Thus insect species that are associated
with that taxonomic grouping may or may not be confined to the wood-decay species.
I have tried to include all species where wood-decay fungi are a significant proportion
of the species that are used.
Decay. The later stages in the decay process of timber are not essentially dissimilar to
other decaying organic matter and this introduces similar complications to those that
arise from the fungivores. I have included, for instance, the beetle Denticollis linearis
as it is a widespread species developing in decaying timber, but it also develops in
peat on moorland. Decaying timber eventually supports what is essentially a soil
fauna, dominated by millipedes, woodlice and centipedes. The present list does not
include such species.
Wood. Another significant grey area concerns the definition of dead and decaying
wood. In some cases the invertebrate species occur in twigs or in the woody growth
of herbaceous plants or shrubs such as bramble, rose or even wild cabbage. The
dying process of the wood also produces problems. The wood does not need to be
strictly dead, as some species will colonise sickly or dying wood, and may even
contribute to that condition. For the sake of completeness I have included those
relatively few species which actually feed on living wood.
Rot-holes are all too often not holes in decaying wood but cavities formed on the
exterior of the tree, eg in branch crotches, in which debris and rainwater accumulates
and composts. This habitat is not strictly “wood-decay” but is included here as
cavities actually in wood-decay can similarly fill with debris and rainwater, as can
compartmentalised rot cavities – whether there is any real distinction so far as the
invertebrates are concerned is unclear.
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