The Biological Recording Company was commissioned by Kingston Council to deliver five Field Recorder Day events at the Hogsmill Valley in south-west London between 2023 and 2025. Four of the five Field Recorder Days were focused on a particular taxonomic group: botany, earthworms, beetles and pollinators, respectively. The fifth event was a ‘General Field Recorder Day’ in which participants were invited to record any taxonomic group they wished. A sixth Field Recorder Day was also delivered in the Hogsmill Valley as part of the FSC BioLinks project during 2022 (this is included in reporting here).
The ‘Hogsmill Valley’ is a series of five neighbouring green spaces and nature reserves along the Hogsmill River, a chalk stream in the London Borough of Kingston. The five constituent sites are, from North to South: Rose Walk, Elmbridge Meadows, Hogsmill Wood, Southwood Open Space and Six Acre Meadow. Of the five events delivered, some only focused on one or two of these sites, whereas others covered all of them.
This blog shares some highlights from the Hogsmill Valley Biological Recording Project. At the bottom of the page you can find a pdf of the full report.
Events
Photos
Chaetolonchaea pallipes (Diptera: Lonchaeidae), a genus and species new for Britain from Hogsmill Valley
During the Pollinator Field Recorder Day on 01/05/2024, fly specialist Martin Harvey collected a species of Lonchaeidae which was unfamiliar to him. Through consultation with other dipterists with experience of the family, they eventually determined the specimen to be Chaetolonchaea pallipes, a species (and genus) not previously recorded from the UK. This family of flies is not well recorded in Britain and Europe, and so the exact providence of Martin’s specimen is unclear. The leading theory, however, is that the specimen likely represents an accidental anthropogenic introduction rather than an arrival triggered by the warming climate. As such, this discovery is largely of academic interest, and no specific conservation measures are recommended. The specimen was swept from the grassland in Six Acre Meadow.
MacGowan, I. and Harvey, M. (2025) Chaetolonchaea pallipennis (Zetterstedt) (Diptera, Lonchaeidae) a new genus and species for the British Isles. Dipterists Digest 2025 32, pp. 26-29. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392402489_Chaetolonchaea_pallipennis_Zetterstedt_Diptera_Lonchaeidae_a_new_genus_and_species_for_the_British_Isles
Project Achievements
Across the six events, 94 attendees contributed a total of 888 species occurrence records, representing a total of 392 different species.
Report
You can read the full report covering all of our recording and achievements from Hogsmill Valley below:
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at our events at Hogsmill Valley. It was great to have so many people – both local residents and enthusiasts from further afield – outside enjoying this fantastic series of green spaces. A big thanks in particular to Elliot Newton for commissioning these events, and to our specialists Mark Spencer, Tony Madgwick, Gino Brignoli, Keiron Brown and Wil Heeney for their knowledge and guidance. Finally, thank you to the London Natural History Society for helping to promote the events.
Biological Recording Projects
At the Biological Recording Company, we specialise in planning and delivering projects centred around recording wildlife and training naturalists.
- London Recording Projects involve the delivery of events from our Field Recorder Day, Invertebrate Study Day, Earthworm Sampling Day and Training Course programmes. Examples include:
- Site-based projects, such as Wild Tolworth, Ealing Beaver Project and Lesnes 500.
- Borough-based projects, such as our Southwark and Barnet projects.
- Earthworm Projects range from identification training and earthworm surveys to research and consultation. Example include:
- Engagement-focused projects, such as delivering earthworm recorder training in Northern Ireland and working with farmers in the Chilterns.
- Research-focused projects, such as looking at the impact of hay meadow restoration on earthworm communities, assessing the effectiveness of regenerative farming practices and investigating the use of AI in earthworm identification.
- National Biological Recording Projects entail putting our expertise to use with helping other organisations improve the biological recording processes and reach new audiences.
- Training projects include developing online training for Lepidoptera verifiers and producing guidance on the use of Record Cleaner and iRecord.
- Consultation projects include reviewing the pay of natural history tutors and working with the British Mycological Society to improve fungus record quality and data flow.
Biological Recording 