The Lyons Share

October and November have been really good months, I've added 39 and 51 species respectively and of these 58 were lower plants, particularly fungi (of which I have now seen 200 species). Pan-species listing is slowly taking off with 16 people now having submitted their lists. I have been thinking recently about how good this is. As I have said many times before, the number that represents the list is a meaningless way of quantifying a lifetimes achievement in natural history but what it represents is profound. Are we witnessing the beginnings of a renaissance of the all-round naturalist? I think so and I think Mark Telfer has done a great thing here by encouraging this behaviour. So between the 1st October and the end of November 2011 I have added 90 species and I end on 3718 species.

The mushroom above is Agaricus macrocarpus and I stumbled upon it shortly after some idiot had carried out some rural graffiti. I was trying to demonstrate how yellow this amazing fungus went when scratched (a bit like writing your name in the snow). We found these at The Mens in mid November and I first thought it was going to be a Yellow Stainer but I was struck by how intense a smell of marzipan there was. I sent some specimens to Vivien Hodge and she confirmed it as A. macrocarpus. This is only the second record for West Sussex and the third for Sussex. A white mushroom that turns yellow when you scratch the surface and smells of marzipan. I think it should be called the Christmas Cake Mushroom.

Anyway, here is the list.

Vascular plants	1149 (+2)
Moths	834 (+5)
Beetles	392  (+5)
Birds	338 (+2)
Fungi	200 (+46)
Mosses	118 (+7)
Arachnids	85 (+6)
True flies	84 (+1)
True bugs	79
Molluscs	63 (+2)
Aculeates	57 (+1)
Butterflies	53
Mammals	40 (+1)
Fish	37
Dragonflies	32
Liverworts	32 (+5)
Lichens	27
Crustaceans	26 (+2)
Crickets & grasshoppers	19
Seaweeds & algae	7 (+1)
Amphibians	6
Reptiles	6
Anemones & jellyfish	5
Mites	5
Lacewings & allies	4
Cockroaches	3
Millipedes	3
Leeches	3 (+1)
Caddisflies	2
Centipedes	2
Slime Mould	2 (+2)
Lice	1
Silverfish	1
Earwigs	1
Mayfly	1 (+1)

Which is already out of date as I added a new liverwort from Leconfield today, the rather smart Scapania nemorea. Species 3719, you can see it covered in little brown gemmae. Oh and the next podcast is about to go into production.