A PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE FAUNA OF STA VERTON PARK, SUFFOLK Part 3 PAUL T .
HARDING
W I T H the publication of this final part of the list a total of 9 0 0 species of animals are recorded from Staverton Park. As was stated in Part 1 ( S u f f o l k Natural History Vol. 16 pp. 232-238), only five of the 20 groups of animals can be considered to have been comprehensive'y covered in this survey of the fauna. Of the groups dealt with in Part 1 the Hemiptera certainly would repay study and in Part 3 almost all the records of Hymenoptera and Diptera date from several decades ago. Although the lists of Lepidoptera and Araneae contain 156 and 73 species respectively, both groups could be expected to be represented at Staverton by many more species, and would repay further study.
The faunal interest of Staverton Park has probably declined with the ploughing of the heaths after 1946. However, it is for the oak parkland and the holly/oak woodland of the Thicks that Staverton is famous. There is little doubt that certain aspects of the faunal interest have declined in recent years, but mainly in common with national declines of certain species of butterflies and birds. The absence of natural regeneration or replacement of the oaks has already been pointed out by G. F. Peterken (see Part 1). This is the greatest single threat to the wildlife interest of the site. Although most of the oaks can be expected to live for a further Century or more, the whole site is likely to degenerate gradually into an area of decaying tree shells. This would be a regrettable fate for this unique site, but unless a new generation of oaks is fostered soon, there seems to be no alternative. The problem of the lack of succession in age classes of trees is common to almost all medieval parkland and royal forest sites where the mature timber habitat is considered to be of great importance in maintaining a high wildlife interest. I must record my gratitude to Alan Hubbard for the benefit of his knowledge of the Lepidoptera and Birds at Staverton during the 1970s. Section 1 INSECTA:
LEPIDOPTERA, HYMENOPTERA, SIPHONAPTERA
DIPTERA,
LEPIDOPTERA (Compiled by A. Hubbard, H. E. Chipperfield and P. T. Harding)