The Cheshire Ladybird Atlas

Map courtesy and © of RECORD

This year one of my major tasks is to start writing the Cheshire Ladybird Atlas with a view to publication in early 2012. As part of this process I aim to fill in as many gaps in the maps as I can over the coming months, but to achieve my aim I'm going to need help. Take a look at the map above (Click on it to enlarge) and you can clearly see some significant gaps in the records. The map is the aggregation of all species occuring in a given square. White squares have no records of any ladybirds being present. Clearly this is a reflection of recorder effort as opposed to a true reflection of ladybird distribution in Cheshire.

It's easy to start filling in the gaps in our knowledge, simply enter any ladybird records  you have on the RODIS system employed by RECORD or failing that send your information to me via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it All records are welcome but those tetrads currently showing no ladybird records at all are most urgently needed.

I'll post an updated map a little later in the year so that any progress can be visualised. Special thanks to Tom at RECORD for producing the map.

Thanks!

Jeff