Lowland Dry Heath & Dry Acid Grassland
Lowland Dry Heath & Dry Acid Grassland
The great majority of lowland heathland in Hastings occurs within Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve. Lowland heathland within Hastings consists of a dwarf shrub community containing heather, bell heather and dwarf gorse. Smaller patches of dwarf shrub communities also occur on the railway embankments at Glyne Gap and on the A21 road verge adjacent to Junction road (now gone).
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Within Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve the habitat occurs in a mosaic with dry acid grassland, cliff-top coastal grassland, bracken, scrub and woodland edge. Most of this heathland occurs on the cliff-top at Warren Glen and Firehills but also occurs further inland within North’s Seat. There are also some detached blocks of heathland on the undercliff at Willow Pit and beneath Firehills. In places this coastal maritime cliff-top heath also contains components of maritime sea cliff vegetation such as thrift Armeria maritima, buck’s-horn plantain Plantago coronopus and rock samphire Crithmum maritimum.
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Cliff-top coastal lowland heath is a scarce habitat occurring mainly along the coasts of Cornwall and Devon. There are a number of very rare invertebrates that only occur in this habitat along the south coast. Most notably the nationally rare and globally restricted Lizard weevil Cathormiocerus myrmecophilus which occurs in cliff-top heathland and grassland at Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve, Bulverhythe and Galley Hill. The weevil is flightless, parthenogenetic and lives amongst short sparsely vegetated ground where there is plenty of bare ground and most likely feeds on buck’s-horn plantain. The species only occurs in southern Britain and northern France and was once considered to be two species, C.myrmecophilus and C.britannicus, which is now disputed by genetic research (Piper et al. 2001). C.britannicus only occurred around the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall hence the common name which is now used for the combined species group. The nationally scarce weevils Cathormiocerus aristatus and Cathormiocerus spinosus also occur in similar cliff-top habitat in Hastings.
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Other invertebrates present in this habitat include the nationally rare ant-mimic ground spider Micaria albovittata. This species also requires warm sparsely vegetated grassland or heath with lots of bare ground and is usually found in the company of ants. At Warren Glen the species has been found in association with the ant Lasius alienus nesting in cracks on the cliff-top. Other ant mimic spiders associated with ants on cliff-top heathland which occur here include the ant-mimic jumper Myrmarachne formicaria and Asagena phalerata. The spectacular wasp spider Argiope bruennichi is present throughout Hastings but is most common on the regenerating heathland on Firehills.
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Heathland is a particularly biodiverse habitat, especially coastal heath due to the complex mosaic of habitats that occur within a heathland landscape. The close proximity of habitats and microhabitats produce a complexity of microniches exploited by a high diversity of species. One of the most important microhabitats within heathland is bare ground. As on the undercliff bare ground within heathland is used by a large number of ground nesting bees, wasps, ants and beetles.
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One of the most characteristic species of ground-nesting bees on heathland is the heather plasterer bee Colletes succinctus, which nests in bare ground on eroded paths and amongst heather. The species specialises in collecting heather pollen to provision its nests. Another species commonly seen foraging from heather flowers is the heather bumblebee Bombus jonellus. The workers of this species are particularly small and can bee seen collecting pollen from heather flowers in Warren Glen, Firehills and at North’s Seat.
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The heathland and acid grassland within Warren Glen is one of the best places for glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca in Hastings, although they also occur in good numbers on the undercliff. The larvae of this beetle feed on slugs and snails and are usually seen under stones or logs during the day. The males are fully winged and fly searching for the bioluminescent glow emitted from the three distal segments of the abdomen of the flightless females. Two species of glow-worm have been recorded in Hastings but the very rare lesser glow-worm Phosphaenus hemipterus hasn’t been recorded in Hastings for over 130 years (De Cock et al. 2009).
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The scrubby acid grassland of Warren Glen was also where the first British breeding population of sickle-bearing bush-cricket Phaneroptera falcata was discovered in 2006 (Collins et al. 2007). The species had not been seen in Britain for over a hundred years and the small population in Warren Glen persisted for quite a few years.
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The heathland and acid grassland of Firehills and Warren Glen is also exceptionally good habitat for reptiles. It is the complex mosaic of habitats and microhabitats, especially within Warren Glen, which support such a good population of slow-worm Anguis fragilis, common lizard Zootoca vivipara, grass snake Natrix natrix and adder Vipera berus. Reptiles require different habitats and microhabitats for hibernation, breeding, thermoregulation and hunting.
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It is common to see adders thermoregulating on bare ground amongst heather and bracken or under logs and plant litter. It is also possible to see adders hunting small mammals on the woodland floor within Warren Wood or common lizards amongst the heather on the Firehills.
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The short scrubby gorse within parts of Warren Glen and Firehills provide habitat for good numbers of nesting stonechat Saxicola rubicola and occasionally tree pipit Anthus trivialis and Dartford warbler Sylvia undata attempt to breed. Dartford warblers also commonly winter on the cliff-top heathland within Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve.