By Mike Averill
Whilst carrying out a dragonfly survey at Croome Park in 2000, a Stratiomys potamida was found in The Croome River. This soldier fly (see Worcestershire Record No 7, Nov 1999 page 19), inhabits marshy areas and has amphibious larvae, according to the RECORDER database. The further description that it lives in shaded seepages and heavily vegetated ponds and ditches exactly fits the description of the location on the Croome River where it was seen. The striking black and yellow insect was egg laying on a sedge stem. Unfortunately that sort of habitat is definitely not what Capability Brown envisaged for the site and so any possible restoration is unlikely to leave it as a secluded shady spot.
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