An Alternative Natural History of Sussex.
This blog shows the highlights of my day to day findings as a naturalist and ecologist living and working in Sussex. Delivered with a pinch of nihilism, a dash of sarcasm and absolutely no tweeness, here is my attempt to show natural history as it really is: Brutal, beautiful, uncompromising and fascinating...and occasionally ridiculous.
I have been studying natural history for some thirty years, nineteen in a professional capacity. I currently work in Sussex as a freelance entomologist, ecologist and botanist and specialise in nature reserve and rewilding management advice based on the interpretation of the surveys I carry out. I also run a number of identification courses. An advocate of the pan-species listing approach. My main areas of interest are birds, plants and invertebrates and a lot of my spare time is spent in the field. I am the county recorder for spiders and bugs.
Less than four weeks into the field season already and I have completed my work for April. I am over 20% into the year's field work, which just seems weird! I have lost over 4 kg, some 5% of my body weight. Walked over 120 miles carrying around 15 kg of gear. But most importantly, I have made shed loads of records and found some really awesome stuff. 6279 records to be precise. Of 1016 species, including 612 invertebrates, 203 of these are spiders! I do tend to skim through the specimen jars to look at the spiders early on, meaning that most of the other stuff will wait until the winter (so most of the invertebrate orders below are just field dets at this stage). Here is what I have recorded and where, so far.
And now for some highlights. On my first day out at Iping Common, I found two Nationally Rare spiders new to the site, new hectads for them too and the first time I have seen either in Sussex, I was pretty stoked with that! At the top of this blog is Zora silvestris, Identifiable by the spines on the leg even as an immature. This Critically Rare spider is only known from six post-1992 hectads, now it's seven! Nearby was a healthy population of Lathys heterophthalma (below), a Vulnerable species known only from four hectads post-1992, now five!
Over to Old Lodge in East Sussex. Only the 2nd ever record in Sussex for Theonoe minutissima. A midget among the spiders. A much commoner species in the north and west. I sieved it from Sphagnum where it has surely been here for years, undetected. Amazingly it's new to Ashdown Forest.
I had a new hectad for Hypomma fulva in East Sussex and had it new to West Sussex near Amberley.
I bumped into some Golden-eye Lichen on a farm survey in Brighton.
Only the second time I have seen the ground bug Emblethis denticollis. This was down on the shingle restoration at Black Rock in Brighton.
To Bedfordshire and a voluntary job for BBOWT at Strawberry Hill. Only the 2nd time I have seen Liocranoeca striata and it was also new to Bedfordshire, it was quite common there.
To Franchises Lodge in Wiltshire, although it still very much feels like the New Forest. Some nice records like only the 3rd time I have seen Cassida hemisphaerica.
And a new hectad for Crustulina sticta.
I have been enjoying the Sussex woodland this spring, with lots of AWIs in flower, such as this Goldilocks Buttercup. Photo-bombed by a Wood Anemone!
Finding a new site for Mossy Stonecrop in West Sussex on a lovely sandy farm was a real highlight. This is my first Sussex record of this species.
And that good old rule, if you find one good thing, you'll probably find more stood up yet again. My first Sussex records of Hoary Cinquefoil.
Over to a farm and woodland in East Sussex. The world's worst photo of an Ash-black Slug.
Found a flush in an unassuming field and it's full of Bog Pondweed and Lesser Spearwort. I will be back here.
And in the woods, only the 2nd time I have seen the scarce (Na) weevil, Tropiphorus elevatus.
And then down to Devon where I have never seen so many Violet Oil-beetles.
I was amazed when I checked the one bee I had collected in a separate tube to the others to see that it had a triangulin attached to it! It was a male Nomada goodeniana, a parasite on a parasite.
And it's been a while since I've seen Elaphrus cupreus, what a beetle up close!
It's been a great four weeks. I really wanted to write this blog to show people just how important a month April is, even if it's not that sunny. I always like to get a round of monitoring in before leaf-burst, chiefly armed with the suction sampler (and three batteries) as this often picks up species that are being missed if you don't start until May. I love April, it's by far my favourite month for surveying. No hay fever, no rank vegetation, very little heat and loads of good records! Now, it's City Nature Challenge time and I have big plans this year...I am aiming for 4000 records in four days. Gulp.
Never before have I agonised over the order of my top ten natural history highlights but I do not exaggerate when I say 2019 was the best natural history year of my life. Anyway, spiders are here lumped as one and will get their own top ten at a later date. So here they are in reverse order.
10. Carabus intricatus (Blue Ground Beetle) with John Walters in Devon.
It was hard keeping John in eye sight on the side of the hill so I was glad that he was able to find us one of these astonishingly smart beetles. December was an exceptional month for me in nature.
9. Purple Emperor (Apatura iris) larva beaten from willow at Holmwood Common.
Not a really rare species but my first encounter with the larva in September produced some unforgettable photos.
8. Snow Fleas (Boreus hyemalis).
Both on purpose in the Wyre Forest, Shropshire in February and by accident on the Roaches in December.
7. Mega rare moths found in the field, who needs a moth trap?
I found a LOT of rare moths, probably the rarest was this Purple Marbled that I managed to capture even without a net at Seaford Head during a bioblitz. Others this year including sweeping a Dewick's Plusia in a park in London and netting a Hornet Moth in flight on a freelance job in Kent.
6. East Head sand dunes invertebrate survey.
A summer surveying these sand dunes with Lee Walther for the National Trust was a blast. Still I think the site with highest proportion of species with conservation status I have ever surveyed. Here I have picked the sea-lavender feeding weevil Pseudaplemonuslimonii as it's metallic purple!
5. Sea slugs at the Pound
My annual trip to the Pound at Eastbourne with Evan Jones was mid blowing last year and it's testament to how amazing a year this has been that this is way down at number five. Here is the one that blew me away the most and pretty much the only one I found myself, Polycera quadrilineata.
4. The baseline survey of Ken Hill Estate
My trips up to Norfolk this year were so enjoyable, so many great things to find but the day I recorded Breckland Leatherbug Arenocoris waltliimight be the most memorable.
3. A year of spiders
OK, here's the big shock. I have loved year listing spiders (and I will be giving them their own top ten very soon) but it doesn't make it to 1st or even 2nd place. Who will win the spider top ten? I suspect it might have to go toPhilodromus fallaxfor being the most unexpected find in early November that I had almost given up on and one of my most sought after species of all time.
2. Melodious Warbler and breeding Dartford Warblers at Butcherlands
The Butcherlands bird survey has delighted me for nearly a decade. So the breeding Dartford Warblers in bramble scrub were amazing but then picking up an odd warbler in the distance on the last visit, chasing it, realising it was a bird I didn't know was possibly the most exciting thing ever. Especially as at one point it was getting away from me. Then a great big yellow warbler jumped right out in front of me, a Melodious Warbler!. Definitely the fastest song of any bird and a great way to end a very enjoyable survey. When I first picked it up it was in the big willow on the left.
1. My first first for Britain!
Not only a new species but a new family for the UK. Finding this at Marline Valley was such an exciting experience. What a strange looking thing. It was closely followed by a second specimen swept by young Ted on his work experience! I tentatively identified it as Coptosoma scutellatum and Tristan Bantock soon confirmed the ID and I gave it the English name Trapezium Shieldbug. A really exciting way to end 12 years at Sussex Wildlife Trust but I have to end this on a downer. It probably turned up in the hot summer of 2018 and this in turn is almost certainly down to man made climate change.
We now have a government woefully inadequate in terms of its approach to climate change and emissions, so you have to do every little bit you can to prevent things from getting any worse. I don't think people realise just how important five years is in the crisis we are in now, I know I am preaching to the converted here but we just missed a huge chance to make serious change to our environment at this crucial tipping point in the climate crisis and influence others on the world stage.
But I know what you're thinking. "Where ARE its wings?!". Now lets see what 2020 has to offer...
Wow. What a weekend. I had wanted to keep up with my blogs over the weekend but slow wi-fi in the B&B scuppered that. Anyway, this is Saturday's adventure...
So many people, so many arachnids. I finally got to meet Tylan Berry and Debs Rylands yesterday (who was kind enough to take this shot of the 'spider year-listers'). Nicola Bacciu drove us down to Plymouth where we met up with Tylan, Kev, Debs, James McGill and John Walters.
Our first site was arguably the rarest spider in Britain. Within minutes we had seen FOUR Horrid Ground-weavers Nothophantes horridus. Now this is an endemic spider, only known since 1989 and only from a handful of extremely threatened sites. We saw 3% of all the Nothophantes horridus that have ever been seen in the world in an an hour. I think from looking at the habitat the hyphen is in the wrong place and Horrid-ground Weaver is more apt. No suction samplers needed at this point, just turning over stones. Or without the hyphen, I think it is the best name for our band in the top photo, the Horrid Ground Weavers!
A male in the first photo and a female in the second photo. That's a Tramp Slug for scale. And a quick video.
A photo from John Walters of all photographing horridus.
Then James found one of the other targets, Centetostoma bacilliferum. It looks like Pinhead from Hellraiser. The Cenobite version of a regular harvestman.
Then I stupidly got Matt a year tick, Epsinus maculipes. I was actually increasing the gap! Also present, only the third time I have ever seen Dipoena inornata.
Then onto another site where I stumbled across a botanical lifer, only my third ever broomrape being Ivy Broomrape.
And the incredibly strange little orange harvestman that is Scotolemon doriae. What an odd little thing it is.
And a video. Why does someone always ruin them with swearing!?
Then I had TWO lifers in the car park leaving the site. Eratagina saeva!
And of course, Cryptachaea blattea! Thanks Tylan for showing me that one. Bigger than I thought it would be.
Then back to Bovey Tracey for Matt's first for Britain. The tiny Pelecopsis susannae which we found without too much effort sampling tree trunks. All in all it was an amazing day, a huge thank you for everyone involved. Next up I head to Cornwall for even more spider action. I will add though that as of today I am only THREE species behind Matt on 366 species having had 15 lifers in Devon and Cornwall. When I publish the 4th day I will write out the species list for all four days as it is pretty epic.
This is my big spider weekend in the south west. Can I close the gap between myself and Matt? Yet what better way to get distracted from the spiders than with the gorgeous BlueGround Beetle Carabus intricatus. It had been very wet, so yesterday morning was damp but good for spidering, the afternoon though was pretty soggy and a heavy down poor made suction sampling difficult. I met up with John Walters who kindly agreed to show me one of these magnificent beasts and also unexpectedly Kev Rylands, who I have not seen for nine years and is now a fellow top 20 pan-species lister. Just re-read that and it sounds like we found Kev in the field like a woodland creature (I can confirm Kev came with us and we didn't record him).
It's always a pleasure spending time with naturalists in the field on their patch, the last time I met John was the day that inspired me to write the first of my two Calosoma sycophanta blogs. I learned so much in the couple of hours we were together. Here are some more shots of this gorgeous beetle and a wee video showing how long and gangly it is.
And here is a common Carabus problematicus for comparison, just to show how different intricatus is. It looks very squat and plain in comparison.
And on the way back Kev spotted this amazing Witch's WhiskersUsnea florida! A lifer.
What a stunning landscape Dartmoor is. I have never really spent much time here.
Now for the spiders. The first species I recorded at Yarner Wood was actually Micrommata virescens! (if you don't include the two species I got at a service station that is). You know it's gonna be a good day when that's the first spider you find on a site.
By 10.30 am I got a new site/new 10 km square record and my favourite genus. Walckenaeria nodosa and Matt tells me only the third record for Dartmoor, this was in Sphagnum moss. I also picked up Stenus kiesenwetteri which John says is new to Dartmoor!
My other new spider for the day was Tenuiphantes alacris, Which just shows how little spidering I do in the north or west, it's really scarce in the south east.
Here is the spider list up to yesterday for the trip. Quite a few added today in another amazing day in the field but that will have to wait for another day! Loving it down here.
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