The Lyons Share

Well, in less than 24 hours, my last post on the Osprey has already become my third most viewed post. Anyway, before I saw that I was having a look at the vegetated shingle at the mouth of the valley and found some really interesting invertebrates. First up was this tiny little dark pyralid that I first mistook for a tortrix (until I saw its massive conk, which I thought looked like a sound boom). This is Platytes cerusella, a local moth found around the coast in dry places. The males are much darker than the females.

I also found the first record of the scarce jumping spider Sitticus inexpectus there since 1990.

Other highlights included the tiny myrmecophile ladybird Platynapsis luteorubra, the even smaller ladybird Nephus redtenbacheri, the tiny ant Ponera testacea and walking back a carabid tick, Zabrus tenebrioides. With an Osprey on the end of this lot, it wasn't a bad day!

For the record, I HATE the use of BOOM! in birding and natural history, I'm only using it here in an attempt to be funny.