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I saw my 10,000th species!
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Sunday, 9 August 2026 11:30
On Thursday morning (6th August), I hit 10,000 species seen in the British Isles. I first pulled my list together on the 1st August 2010, so you could say it's took me 16 years to get to this point. Yet I started recording when I was 10, so you could also say it actually took 38 years. Or 48 years. Whatever the time scale, I feel privileged to be one of only three people to every get to the 10,000 mark. Looking at the rankings though, this is really going to change over the coming years. I predict some of the younger more active listers could hit 10,000 before they reach 30.
My 10,000th species was very nearly a bug new to Britain but it needs more work to confirm it, or it might not be possible to get to species. I didn't want to go and find something, I just wanted it to happen organically - I really love the randomness of PSL. That side of it really appeals to my ADHD brain. I was working at Blean Wednesday to Friday last week and again stayed at Sandwich Bird Observatory. I didn't get anything new at Blean that day and I ran a trap at the Obs. So my 10,000th species was...
Ancylosis oblitella. A rather dull pyralid. It must be common there as there were 10 in the trap! In fact, I actually quite like that it wasn't that scarce and wasn't that exciting. Because that is what most species are like. Something amazing would have been too easy, and to be fair PSL is all about trying to master all the species within each group over your life, and most species are not rare or scarce.
Which is how minutes later I hit my 10,001 species with one of my longest standing bogies! Dark Spinach. How has it took me 35 years to see this moth?
The next day at Blean, I picked up my 10,002nd species. This gorgeous cranefly. What a beauty! I believe this is Metalimnobia bifasciata. Yet another fairly widespread species.
In the evening, I went out with Jonny Bull the Assistant Warden at the Obs to set some moth traps up. I couldn't believe it when I saw my 10,003rd species - Sharp Rush! I had no idea how different this thing is compared to Sea Rush (on the right). What a rush dude! It's 6 foot high and could easily have your eye out, the spines are brutal and the inflorescences are massive.
I got a couple more new moths in the traps the next morning but failed to take any photos. So I am now on 10,005 species! The moth traps were epically good but I will do a separate post about that as part of the 6000 Species Challenge.
The rate at which I see new species is easy to forecast over long time scales, in fact as far back as last year I expected it to happen this August! Now, is 20,000 species possible in a lifetime? I will give it a go...
A massive thanks Jonny Bull and the team at the Obs but also a huge thanks to Will Langdon, Alex Press and Joss Carr for getting me loads of lifers on an epic trip to Epping Forest last weekend. It was all the more exciting as I wasn't expecting to go!
If you fancy giving pan-species listing a go, you can sign up free to the website here www.panspecieslisting.com, It might just change your life!
Well done, a great achievement!