The Lyons Share

It's been two months since I last showed how my list has changed. Back then, on the 31st May I was on 3397, by the 31st July I was on 3601 species! So I have added 204 species in two months. I might have stopped trying to get to 4000 species but I am heading there anyway without any real effort beyond going to work and identifying things I see whilst I'm surveying.

I have added a few really nice species recently that for one reason or another didn't make it into a blog post. The rarest is perhaps a beetle that I caught at Parham last Monday (25th July). Whilst moth trapping I did a bit of torching on oak trunks and netted a tenebrionid in flight. I new it was one I had not seen and suspected it was Prionychus ater. By the time I got round to identifying it I realised it was the RDB2 Prionychus melanarius! A great find.

Another surprise came when I suddenly realised that the huge spiders with tubercles on their abdomens that I saw at Friston on the 30th June when moth trapping were not Gibbaranea gibbosa but actually the Nb Araneus angulatus. I wish I had managed a photo now, quite a large spider, certainly bigger than any Araneus diadematus that I have seen. This just goes to show, moth-trapping is great for getting you out into wild places after dark with a torch, something that few people do. Pan-species listing has made moth trapping even more exciting for me!

Here is how the list breaks down: