The Lyons Share

My personal challenge to get to 3000 species by the end of the year seems very likely to succeed...and some! Jo noticed this tiny micro moth on the bedroom wall last night. I potted it up and looked at it this morning and it was surprisingly a little tineid that I had not recorded before. There are two very closely related species and they are best separated by the colour of the hindwing. This one is Monopis obviella (it has a darker hindwing with a purplish tinge - visible under the microscope) and feeds upon animal/vegetable detritus and bird's nests. It got me thinking, I have seen 2973 species now, only 27 away from 3000. Given I have a fungi recording day planned to The Mens on Wednesday with Martin Allison, I may actually even get to 3000 by the end of the month! So, what will the 3000th species be? Anyone care to guess?

There was a good visible migration of birds this morning. During the two minutes it takes me to get to the corner shop, I heard a Goldcrest in the elms outside my house and heard Skylark, Redwing, Meadow Pipit and Siskin flying over. Ha ha, I can actually hear the Siskins flying over as I am writing this!