The Lyons Share

Now for the slugs & snails. A total of 27 species were recorded and six of these were new for the site. One of them. the River or 'Giant' Pea Mussel Pisidium amnicum was new for me too. Pulled out of the river in the same sample as the riffle beetles in the lats post. Three lifers in one net. The distinctive thing about this pea mussel is it's huge. At 10 mm wide, it towers over the others in the genus. It's also far more asymmetrical than the other species and is found in rivers. The last record on any Trust reserve was from Amberley in 2008. I was surprised Leopard Slug was new. The Vertigo was found using the suction sampler in the valley field and the aquatic molluscs in the lake are doing well after the carp removal with a few new species there. To summarise, between the beetles and molluscs, 70 species of which 26 (37%!) are new for the site (and three new for me). Here are some other shots from my library. Limacus maculatus, Planorbis planorbis and Cochlodina laminata Next up, the bugs!