The Lyons Share

Had a great day out spidering with me old mate Adrian Holloway today. We started in torrential rain at the Cuckmere looking for Pseudeuophrys obseleta. We didn't find it but did find an adult male Sitticus inexpectus but that was already on my list from the other side of the river this year. I did however get a couple of really nice linys that I had never seen before. Typhochrestus digitatus at its only Sussex site and loads of the very cool Pelecopsis nemoralioides. Both nationally scarce and both species new to me. The latter was the first East Sussex record since 1961. Also new for the year was a long overdue Dysdera erythrina. Here is the male Sitticus inexpectus.

And the Pelecopsis nemoralioides.

A quick dash over to the Pevesney Levels to look for one of my favourite wolf spiders. The impressive and scarce Pirata piscatorius, this being the only known East Sussex site. So big and bad ass they often get mistaken for Dolomedes! Much darker and bigger than any of the others in the genus, they usually have a strong white stripe down the side of the cephalothorax but this one didn't.

And then a quick dash over to my favourite bit of abused and abandoned shingle, the Crumbles. There we picked up Typhocrestus digitatus again, at which is now its second Sussex site. The weevil Ethelcus verrucatus and this new assassin bug, Empicoris rubromaculatus. New to East Sussex after it was spotted near Henfield only last month.

And no trip to the Crumbles is complete without a Myrmarachne formicaria. Here is a little video to show how ant-like they really are. So FOUR new ones for the year leaves me on 326 species of spider for 2019.

I decided to purge my cold and spent the whole day spidering yesterday and feel much better for it. I got THREE county firsts for my efforts (all under 2mm, all with the suction sampler) too so was pretty pleased, and five new spiders for the year ending the day on 315 species.

First, quick recap on the spider year listing. It all got a bit much for me from July onward with work. Too busy surveying spiders to actually find spiders. I know this sounds crazy but it's true. Now I have some more free time I can get out and go where I like. Also, from July onward, I find spidering really dull until about now. The game is back on. So where are we? I make no apologies if you haven't seen any Marvel movies and that some of what I am about to say will appear as gibberish...

Captain Devon. Matt's reached the 340s. People think that's a shield, it's actually a tray for sieving spiders. A prototype for the more successful Captain America, he lost interest in fighting and started hanging around cobwebs. They had to let him go.

Thive. I'm like Thor but one better. Attracts rain instead of lightning. If I put my hand out, my suction sampler flies into it no matter where it is (keeps smashing my car boot window though so easier just to open my boot now and not use my powers). Can't distinguish between 'th' and 'f'. On 315.

Theridiron Man. Tylan's on 178. Catchphrase: "Has anyone seen my Potts?" Actually has Cryptachea blablabla living inside his suit.

Fanos. Not actually playing along but some bloke Captain Devon knows was somehow beating us all even by early summer, despite not actually year listing spiders. Currently on somewhere between more than me and a 1000. It definitely has something to do with infinity stones.

Anyway, the whole point of this tenuous analogy? It's the last three months of the year and we are moving into a different chapter, the endgame. Time is running out for lots of big spiders, new opportunities opening up for linys. Can I comeback from this far behind now?!

So yesterday, I headed for West Sussex. Called in at Burton Pond where I hadn't seen yet Larinioides sclopetarius for the year! Not actually a hugely common spider in Sussex.

I had a dig around in New Piece and picked up Scotina celans new to the site and Mermessus trilobatus (new to West Sussex from the suction sampler). Both these were on my year list though. I did remember that the edge of the pond is good for Tetragnatha striata. One sweep of the pond edge produced about half a dozen of the distinctive immatures. Really different to the other members of the genus, none of which I would feel comfortable identifying from immatures. In ten years I have only seen this spider here and on one site in the Pevensey Levels.

I suction sampled a couple of old Tussock-sedges and got a funny looking bug. This is a county first for both counties, Ceratocombus coleoptratus. Really odd hairy antennae and a long hairy 'Roman nose'.

Then to Stedham Common. Where I picked up some nice things that I had already seen this year such as loads of adult male Alopecosa barbipes. Note the Marsh Clubmoss in the background!

I spent the rest of the afternoon suction sampling. I managed to get FOUR new spiders for Iping and Stedham, making the site list 220 with exactly 25% of these having conservation status. Firmly cementing the site as the best spider site in Sussex in terms of species and rarity, that's 55 species with cons status! Amazingly, Mermessus trilobatus was one. The rarest was Meioneta mollis from Stedham (a Nationally Rare species). Also new for me and both counties was the tiny Araeoncus humilis below. I'm quite surprised that this hasn't been picked up before. I like that this has been given the English name 'Modest Forehead'. Also new for the year was Centromerita concinna, the first site record since 1968. 

I found a huge patch of Sphagnum magellenicum or Sphagnum medium as Brad tells me its now called. Actually quite gutted about that name 'change'. It's a strikingly beautiful moss. Here it is with an adult female Trochosa terricola.

And my fith and final new spider of the day was Segestria florentina at the only site I have ever seen it, the middle of Chichester! It's still really uncommon down here with only three 10 km squares. I have had more records for Zoropsis in iRecord than this. I didn't however manage a photo, as I was racing against time to see one against the parking ticket.

So, I am definitely back in the game. Next up, I need to find Araneus marmoreus, another scarce species in Sussex.

UPDATE: I found Araneus marmoreus before finishing writing this blog! I was about to give up but found this adult female at Woods Mill after the fungi workshop! That's 316. I have worked at Woods Mill for 12 years and this is the first I have seen in Sussex outside of the Ashdown Forest, well done to Ryan for finding a pair there a couple of years ago.

I finished an invertebrate survey at Holmwood Common today for the National Trust in Surrey. I was pleasantly surprised by how much stuff I found today but the lep. larvae were the highlights. This is the first time I have see a Purple Emperor larva, so you won't be surprised to see I took a LOT of photos of it. Enjoy!

What a cute little dude! Hard to believe next year this could become our biggest butterfly. If it's lucky!

Nearby I beat some gorse and got this remarkable looking lichen mimic moth larva. At first I thought Brussel's Lace, then a Light Emerald and thanks to Jeroen Voogd on the Caterpillars UK & EUROPE Facebook group he pointed me in the right direction. It's not a geometrid at all. It's Beautiful Hook-tip. A moth I have seen hundreds of times but another larva tick!

And then, a massive Pale Tussock! I couldn't get it to unfurl.

The black stuff on Pale Tussocks is like that Vantablack paint, it reflects no light at all. I was staring into that blackness when I was reminded of the Fast Show...

I have just got back from a slightly abbreviated visit to Ken Hill where I started the NVC map and finished the invertebrate field visits. I have so far this year recorded 747 species of invertebrates there. Definitely the biggest list for any site I have carried out a six-visit survey on, with 662 species recorded alone so far from the six standardised visits. There are dozens of tubes of specimens yet to process too. Will we get to a 1000 species? I was pleased to find Pogonocherus hispidulus by beating twigs and this proved a hit under the microscope. So I took some time today to get a good sequence of photos and I'm pretty pleased with them. This little longhorn beetle is a thing of exquisite complexity and beauty up close. Yet looks like a stinky old bird turd from a few feet away. A great tactic to avoid being eaten. Only works if you're really small though.

Not had enough Pogonocherus? OK, here's the other common one. Pogonocherus hispidus. Possibly the two most confusingly named species I know of. It's literally just missing the 'lu' at the end. A smaller less-contrasting beetle that didn't want to pose.

And the two together. Pogonocherus hispidus is a smaller beetle and has a smaller name than hispidulus. That's how I remember these two.

And Cassida vittata is always a pleasure to see.

Elsewhere on the site, a late flush of Corn Marigold (with Corn Spurrey it makes up the NVC community OV4) was growing after the Spring Barley had been harvested. Really didn't feel like late September at this point!

And Night-flowering Catchfly (on the left) identifiable long after flowering from the similar White Campion (right).

Birds were very quiet. Hardly any passerines about. Hobby and a Tree Pipit over were the highlights. One more visit to go though so maybe October will produce some rarities? Can't wait!

My first season as an almost full time entomologist is drawing to a close. It's been an incredible summer and one of the most exciting surveys has been the East Head survey I carried out for the National Trust in West Sussex. On Saturday I finished the sixth and final visit. It was one of those visits where you don't really feel like you've found very much, until you get home!

First off I thought I had found a new spider for me, being Agroeca inopina. After I got this male home, it was evident that this was actually the much more widespread Agroeca proxima. I did take the time to get some photos though. These late summers spiders look quite like small skinny wolf spiders with slightly wrong proportions. I took a female from a few metres away too. And I was really surprised that that one turned to be Agroeca inopina. This spider was new to me but known from the site. That makes 306 spiders for me this year. I am still way behind Matt. The spiders are done for the site with 13 of the 61 species recorded having conservation status! A whopping 21.3%. Here are the rare and scarce spiders for the site.

Alopecosa cuneata (NS)

Araneus angulatus (NS)

Argenna patula (NS)

Ceratinopsis ramosa (NR)

Crustulina sticta (NS)

Enoplognatha mordax (NS)

Nigma puella (NS)

Pardosa proxima (NS)

Phlegra fasciata (NR)

Sibianor aurocinctus (NS)

Sitticus saltator (NS)

Thanatus striatus (NS)

Zelotes electus (NS)

I could not find Marpissa nivoyii at this site but a more striking absence is that of the wolf spider Xerolycosa miniata which is usually common in sand dunes. This spider remains absent from West Sussex.

I still have 30 tubes of invertebrates to identify over the winter but this survey is definitely one of the most distinctive in terms of its statistics. It's by far the lowest in terms of overall diversity (I'm currently on 298 species) but the proportion of species with conservation status continues to be the highest I have ever surveyed. It's currently at 49 species, that's 16.4%! It was 17.4% after July, 16.2% after August so feels like it's oscillating around this area and won't change massively with the addition of the microscope work.

Under some tidal debris I found this this lively noctuid larva, which I believe to be Sand Dart. A Nb coastal specialist.

Other new species with status for the survey included Protapion difforme, Orthotylus rubidus and Sibinia arenariae. However, the highlight of the day and possibly the whole survey came in the last hour when I ran the suction sampler through some short sandy turf at the end of the dune slack. A funny orange carabid which turned out to be Bradycellus distinctus. This is Nationally Rare and Endangered and Mark Telfer says he can't recall hearing of any records  since he wrote the carabid review in 2016! Last recorded in Sussex was in 2000 at Rye Harbour and only known from there and Camber Sands in Sussex. Here it is!

The next day I was at the Secrets of the Heath event and the first family that came up to look at the inverts in the tray asked "were you at East Head yesterday hoovering up the dunes?"

I helped out yesterday for the second year in a row at the Secrets of the Heath event at Petersfield Heath. It was really great seeing so many kids getting into entomology and it was particularly nice to tell them when they had found a scarce invertebrate. The idea that you can do either public engagement or rigorous and complicated recording and not both is simply not true. I filled four pages in my notebook and recorded seven species with conservation status and used scientific names all day long. Not one kid questioned the use of scientific names, taking it all in their stride. The enthusiasm was incredible and we didn't stop from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm! 

First up though is a lifer for me. Above is the nationally rare Rhopalus rufus. I am pretty sure I picked one up last year but was not as convinced by this one and Tristan gave it the thumbs up too. This next photo was from last year but they were also present this year, the closely related Rhopalus maculatus.

These two were both caught by children with sweep nets. A real smart looking beast and one of my favourite bugs, the nationally scarce Alydus calcaratus. This one kept still enough for some photos.

And Sibianor aurocinctus is now turning up on nearly every site I survey in the south east. This is an adult male taken down the microscope, the one caught yesterday was a sub adult male.

And in the suction sampler, a completely green Cassida prasina. Also nationally scarce. Also recorded in the suction sampler was the tiny Nb ladybird Scymnus schmidti.

There is masses of Sheep's Sorrel there that wasn't present last year, something I have seen on a few sites this year. We think that it's likely due to Wavy Hair-grass being burnt off in last year's heat wave. I have looked at a few large patches of this and ran the suction sampler over it looking for Spathocera dalmanii and after quite a lot of effort, I found it in a tiny patch of the food plant right behind the Trust's stall. Another nationally scarce species that seems to be on rise. For a day's recording in September, considering the primary focus was public engagement, 63 species wasn't bad. Coupled with seven species with cons status, that comes out at 11.1% which suggests a pretty good site indeed!