The Lyons Share

Field Crickets have been re-introduced to Iping Common and seem to be doing well there. We have been there today and Rowan Edwards has been showing us the methodology he has been using to map their annual distribution across the site. This species are so rare that you need a license to work with them, which Rowan has. The song is very distinctive. The burrows, which are also quite distinctive when you get your eye in, are very different to the vertical (but similar sized) holes of Minotaur Beetles. They are big insects, quite unlike anything else I have seen in the wild in this country. Here are a few more shots:

Whilst standing in the car park, I tapped the single Hawthorn there and it produced a longhorn that I had not seen before. It turned out to be a naturalised species, Obrium brunneum. I also spent a long time trying to catch an impossibly fast ant mimic spider, only to find it was a sexually immature male so I couldn't get any further than the genus Micaria. Jane and I then went on to Graffham but will have to wait for another day...