The state of pan-species listing at the end of 2018

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Wednesday 2 January 2019 11:16

What a year. As I edge closer to going part time freelance, I have never been busier and add in a relapse of my slipped disc at the end of the year, I'm really looking forward to a fresh start in 2019.  I'm totally gutted that yet again I did not have time to get down to the meet up. It sounds like a really well organised event by Sally and I wish I had got down there to Cornwall. Big changes in my life are planned in the next three months to make more time for stuff like this so if I don't make it down to one this year, I am truly doomed. 

I did get a chance to go and see the pan-species lister's event of the decade, the Beluga. I wonder how many people saw this in the end? Never thought I'd get Beluga before Otter.

Anyway, first up is what is going on in the rankings. I think it only fair to put in the top 20 now rather than the top 10 as it's gone from being quite static at this end of the rankings (between 2016 & 2017 there was no movement in the top ten) to being quite a dynamic place. So apologies for all the missing figures at this stage.

2017 2018 Change
1 Jonty Denton 12483 12599 116
2 Dave Gibbs 11327 11575 248
3 Mark Telfer 7603 8239 636
4 Nicola Bacciu 7045 7305 260
5 Graeme Lyons 6840 7206 366
6 Brian Eversham 7030 7203 173
7 The late Eric Philp 6878 6878 0
8 Matt Prince 6483 6800 317
9 Richard Comont 6362 6759 397
10 Steve Lane ??? 6729 ???
11 Simon Davey 6722 6722 0
12 Tony Davis ??? 6541 ???
13 Malcolm Storey ??? 6274 ???
14 Paul Bowyer ??? 6036 ???
15 Tim Hodge ??? 5828 ???
16 John Coldwell ??? 5769 ???
17 Andrew Cunningham ??? 5725 ???
18 Stephen Plummer ??? 5611 ???
19 William Bishop ??? 5518 ???
20 Kev Rylands ??? 5450 ???

Mark has made the biggest progress in the top ten with an increase of 636 species! Followed by Richard with 397 and surprisingly me at 317. I don't really get chance to do any pan-listing away from work and freelance these days but it shows what you can rack up with a few jobs out of county. A job in Kent and a few jobs in Surrey were real highlights, as was a cracking survey in East Sussex in the Brede Valley.  But this is nothing compared to listers like Calum Urquhart and James McCulloch who are flying up the rankings!

I have moved up to fifth place literally today so it may not last very long, Simon Davey has left the top ten and Steve Lane has entered. I can't believe that out of the top 20, I have only ever met 12 of you. The 100th lister is now Nigel Jones with 1552 species. Everyone in the top 100 has now seen over 1500 species. I think that's pretty impressive!

With the top listers per taxa, there are very few new listers BUT lots of new records (in bold).

2016 2017 2018
Algae Jony Denton 288 288 290
Slime Moulds Malcolm Storey 51 51 53
Protists Jony Denton 24 24 24
Lichens Simon Davey 1228 1228 1228
Fungi Malcom Storey 1391 1391 1513
Bryophytes Paul Bowyer 480 503   549
Vascular Plants John Martin 2278 2292   2335
Sponges Richard Comont 12 12 14
Comb-jellies Richard Comont, Jerry Lanfear, James Harding-Morris, Seth Gibson, Jeff Blincow, Richard Lawrence & Calum Urquhart 3 3 2
Cnidarians Richard Comont 44 45   45
Molluscs Richard Comont 222 224   228
Bryozoans Richard Comont 27 30   30
Annelids Richard Comont 51 55   56
Platyhelminth worms Brian Eversham 18 18 18
Sea-spiders Richard Comont 4 4 4
Arachnids Jonty Denton 493 499   513
Myriapods Mark Telfer 77 81   87
Crustaceans Richard Comont 99 100   102
Springtails Richard Comont 44 45   54
3-tailed Bristletails Mark Telfer   8 8 9
Odonata Mark Telfer, Dave Gibbs 48 48 48
Orthopteroids Mark Telfer 41 41 42
Hemipteroids Jonty Denton 861 875   891
Hymenoptera Dave Gibbs 809 809 834
Coleoptera Mark Telfer 2632 2739   2766
Diptera Dave Gibbs 3146 3146 3184
Butterflies Seth Gibson, Stuart Read, Christopher Glanfield 62 62 62
Moths Tony Davis 1628 1635   1647
Remaining small  Jonty Denton 195
  195 195
Echinoderms Richard Comont 19 20   20
Tunicates Richard Comont 22 24   24
Fish Richard Comont 97 98   98
Reptiles Richard Comont 9 10   10
Amphibians Jonty Denton 13 13 13
Birds Dave Gibbs 527 527 530
Mammals Mark Telfer, Dave Gibbs 64 64 64
Other animals Jonty Denton 36 36 36
TOTAL 17051 17243 17618

The total maximum number of species has risen by 879 between the end of 2015 and the end of 2018. That's pretty impressive! Massive leaps in fungi and bryophytes by Malcom Storey and Paul Bowyer respectively. I continue to not be a top lister for anything. I think this is my new angle, the highest ranking lister not top for anything. Oh wait, I'm not even that. Nicola isn't top for anything either and she's ahead of me. That's pan-species listing though, sometimes I feel like 'too little butter spread over too much bread.' I can live with that though. I think butterflies could be my easy win if I went and got the rare breeding species.

The top ten sites are almost exactly the same but Dawlish Warren (at 3866) has knocked Sutton Fen (at 3708) off the tenth place. This part of the website still doesn't get as much use I would have hoped but I am just as much a problem as I have updated totals for Ebernoe Common but have not had chance to enter the data yet. There are 73 sites on the rankings now, up from 63 last year so I am glad that this is still growing.

There are 371 people on the Facebook group and 560 users on the website. Only 232 of these are on the rankings however. 

I wish everyone a happy new year and happy listing in 2019!

1 Response to "The state of pan-species listing at the end of 2018"

Gibster Says:

I've met 14 of the Top 20 listers - woohoo, a category where I score more highly than you do...finally! :)

3 January 2019 at 16:15

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