The Lyons Share

When I first started this blog ten years ago, saproxylic beetles featured really heavily. In fact, the first time I went out looking for a beetle on a hunch was 2009, when I figured I might have a chance of seeing Leptura aurulenta at Ebernoe and I found it! I was hooked. Over the last few years though, spiders kind of took me away. This year though, I've really started getting back into them. Earlier this month, at an undisclosed site in Surrey, I found a new one. I beat the Nationally Rare Grammoptera ustulata from Hawthorn and I could not believe how beautiful it was! Look at those gold hairs!

I have now seen 38 species.

I have not seen, any species of Saperda, Grammoptera abdominalis or Molorchus minor.

I pulled out how many records I have of longhorns, 349 in all. Now this is a bit behind, as I am still to enter most of last year's records and this years but it gives a good indicator. Here they are in reverse order.

Acanthocinus aedilis (Timberman) - Nationally Rare - 1 record
WOW! Look at its antennae!!! I picked this up in the wood yard at Abernethy when Mark Gurney and I were doing bird surveys for the RSPB way back in spring 2007.

Asemum striatum - 1 record
I have only ever picked this up once, way back in 2010 at Iping Common where several were flying around pine trunks. Didn't get a photo.

Glaphyra umbelletarum - Nationally Scarce - 1 record
Another one I have only ever seen once. This time feeding on Hemlock Water-dropwort in Furnace Meadow at Ebernoe Common. I have a rubbish photo but it's on my old work computer.

Mesosa nebulosa - Nationally Scarce - 1 record
Recorded in April 2016 by a young lad on a BMIG weekend at Sheffield Park, semi-emerged in a fallen log. This is one of the smartest beetles I have ever seen.

Rhagium inquisitor - Nationally Scarce - 1 record
Also at the wood yard at Abernethy back in 2007. I found a hard copy of the photo!

Aromia moschata - 2 records
I have definitely seen this three times, the first being in flight at Lakenheath around 2005. Such an impressive beetle.

Arhopalus rusticus - 2 records
I last recorded this under pine bark at Old Lodge in 2013.

Paracorymbia fulva - Nationally Scarce - 2 records
I first picked this up in Jersey in 2017, recorded twice since in Surrey in 2018.

Poecilium alni - Nationally Scarce - 2 records
This doesn't seem right to me, I am sure I have seen this more than this and I have recorded it at least twice this year already. Like a tiny budget version of Anaglyptus.

Pogonocherus fasciculatus - Nationally Rare - 2 records
It's only known Sussex site is Graffham Common where it's not hard to find on low pine branches.

Stenostola dubia (Lime Beetle) - Nationally Scarce - 2 records
I beat one from foliage on the edge of the glades at Ebernoe back in 2009 and the nothing until May 2020 when I beat one from a veteran lime in West Sussex, amazingly I thought to my self, I wonder if this is how you get Stenostola?! It also flew off before I could get a decent photo! It was quite a lot bigger than the first one I saw.

Stictoleptura scutellata - Nationally Scarce - 2 records
I have only ever seen this in the New Forest, way back in 2011 and not seen since.

Agapanthia villsoviridescens - 3 records
Still not all that common in Sussex but spreading. Spectacular but not saproxylic.

Leiopus sp. - 3 records


Pyrrhidium sanguineum - 3 records
Spreading rapidly in Sussex, already had it twice this year. Lovely colour/texture, quite unlike any other beetle.

What a year. I started with the first month in the southern hemisphere, then had possibly the busiest and often most stressful year of my life but I found some great stuff on the way, Including what I think is the highlight of my career so far. As ever, natural history and conservation has been my rock. So, in reverse order...

10. I don't do slugs but back in February I went all the way to Wales to see a whole slimy bunch of them. Here is the Alsatian Semi-slug.

9. I've wanted to see these freaky Tompot Blennies for years and was pleased to find loads off Saltdean in September.

8. It wasn't my first record of this as I had one last year but it was the first for West Sussex and the first for one of our reserves (Levin Down). Here is the awesome Platyrhinus resinosus.

7. Resurveying the ditches at Amberley was great as there was such positive changes. Like this Marsh Cinquefoil appearing in of our ditches after it was cleared.

6. Surveying the Murray Downland Trust's sites with Mike Edwards produced lots of surprises, such as this Villa cingulata at Heyshott Down.

5. I don't often see new longhorn beetles but the beetle season started with a bang with this Mesosa nebulosa found at Sheffield Park on a BMIG meeting by Nathan Clements in April.

4. The repeat of the big farm surveys in 2016 showed one of the farms in East Sussex become internationally significant for arable plants. I stumbled across three species I had never even seen before, like this Stinking Chamomile.

3. New Zealand was an incredible place. Perhaps the best memories are of the amazing seabirds. I'll never forget the first time an albatross flew right over our heads!

2. Sometimes a hunch pays off. An early morning start and we bagged the first records for Columbus Crabs in Sussex off Brighton Beach, all the way from the Sargasso!

1. Do I need to say anything other than CALOSOMA SYCOPHANTA!!!

What a weekend! What a line up. It's been a long time since I invested in some training, this weekend being the British Myriapod and Isopod Group's recording event in the south east. I couldn't miss it and a big thanks to Paul Lee for organising. Now, I've already blogged about the beetle highlight for me being the second record for Sussex of Mesosa nebulosa. So here I am gonna talk about myriapods and isopods.

Myriapods predominantly include the millipedes and centipedes. Here is a huge, greenish, rapidly-tapering centipede we found in a compost heap at Wisley RHS. This is Henia vesuviana. Even though I saw more millipedes, it was the centipedes I was more into, as many of them were identifiable in the field.

Such as this one that is often found under pine bark being Geophilus carpophagus.

There are around 60 species and there is a good key by FSC. Now, I saw lot of millipedes but didn't manage a photo beyond a blurred shot of the species we came to know as 'Millipede X' (no one was sure what this was exactly - you see we have quite a few alien species). There are about 60 species of these too but new alien synathropic species are being discovered so I can't be sure on this. You can find out more about identifying myriapods and isopods here. I learnt  a great way to tell Tachypoidulus niger in the field and how easy it is to see and adult male 

in the field.

Now thanks to Steve Gregory I saw two new woodlice (Trichoniscoides albidus & Ligidium hypnorum) but photographed neither. There are around 40 species with only relatively few very common ones. This is Porcellionides cingendus. I see it now and again (including today in the suction sampler) in rush litter at Woods Mill.

I also had a few other interesting species, such as this Green Celar Slug Limacus maculatus. Although due to its camo-pattern, I refer Combat or Battle Slug. 

And good old Staphylinus dimidiaticornis put in a show too.

A massive thank you to all the people who helped but particularly Paul Lee, Steve Gregory and Keith Lugg. I've already put into practice what I learned and I'm looking forward to finding some more myriapods and isopods sometime soon! I have three fairly common woodlice on my wish list to look out for now too...

Here is the AMAZING Mesosa nebulosa that I saw today on the British Myriapod and Isopod Group recording weekend. A big, stunning and quite beautiful longhorn beetle, my 36th longhorn to be precise (new ones don't come along often these days). An RDB3 species I have been on the look out for for years to no avail. I thought I might find it at Ebernoe or in the West Weald but it was actually in Sheffield Park in East Sussex. However, I didn't find it. This fella did...

This is Nathan Clements (with his dad Kevin in the background). I tagged along with these guys from the Midlands along with Keith Lugg and Steve Gregory. I was learning an immense amount about myriapods and isopods from them all and have seen loads of species but today I'm just gonna blog about the beetles and spiders we found. Anyway, we were by the edge of a lake and hadn't seen much other than the bizarre find of a tiny (yet distinctive) immature Atypus affinis which I beat from an isolated tussock-sedge, quite not what I was expecting but I was chuffed to get Keith this species knowing he had gone a long way to look for it recently but didn't connect. Then, Nathan shouted "Urgh, what's this!"

He came over and handed me a small log with a face and a couple of legs peering out of a hole. I recognised it instantly from a photo in a book that I was captivated by as a child. Here is the photo from the Shire Natural History series on longhorns by Norman Hickin from 1987.

And here is my attempt to replicate the photo. It's kind of weird that it's in such a similar position as I hadn't looked at this book for years. Also, I took loads from the front from many different angles and this was the only one that came out. Anyway. I photographed this beetle a LOT. So here is the best...

It was such an obliging beetle too. So, even though we were really out identifying and recording millipedes, centipedes and woodlice, this was the highlight for me and goes to show how great the PSL approach to natural history is, it was a totally unexpected find. To connect with something you've wanted to see for years is great and for it be found by a twelve year old is just brilliant too. Thanks very much Nathan for a fantastic find and for making my weekend, keep up the good work! Another post on the myriapods and isopods will follow...