Buglife has re-surveyed known localities in the Broads to clarify the status and ecology of an enigmatic fly. The clubbed big-headed fly has Biodiversity Action Plan ‘Priority’ status. UK records are limited to a handful of individuals in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and a single 1990 record from NWT Hickling Broad in Norfolk.
The results of this new survey are encouraging. Four individuals were collected from
Hickling Broad and another from nearby NWT Martham Broad. Given the inherent difficulty of finding a small fly in the Broads, this suggests a healthy population is present in the Upper Thurne Broads and Marshes SSSI and perhaps more widely in the Norfolk Broads.