| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 | |
| Area of Search | East Sussex |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TQ 392 070 [1] |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 63.4 hectares (157 acres) [1] |
| Notification | 1986 [1] |
| Location map | Magic Map |
Kingston Escarpment and Iford Hill is a 63.4-hectare (157-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Brighton in East Sussex. [1] [2]
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. SSSI/ASSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in the United Kingdom are based upon them, including national nature reserves, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation. The acronym "SSSI" is often pronounced "triple-S I".
Brighton is a seaside resort on the south coast of England that is part of the City of Brighton and Hove, located 47 miles (76 km) south of London.
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent to the north and east, Surrey to the north west and West Sussex to the west, and to the south by the English Channel.
These two areas of steeply sloping chalk grassland have a rich invertebrate fauna, including Adonis blue and small blue butterflies and the nationally rare and specially protected wart-biter grasshopper. The flora is also diverse with plants such as squinancywort, horseshoe vetch and eyebright. [3]
The Adonis blue is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in the Palearctic ecozone.
The small blue is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. Despite its common name, it is not particularly blue. The male has some bluish suffusion at the base of its upper wings but is mostly dark brown like the female. The species can live in colonies of up to several hundred and in its caterpillar stage is cannibalistic. The small blue is known for being the smallest butterfly found in the United Kingdom. It is a Priority Species for conservation in Northern Ireland and under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.
The wart-biter is a bush-cricket in the family Tettigoniidae. Its English and scientific names derive from the age-old practice of using the cricket to bite warts from the skin.
