The Lyons Share

I was at Butterfly Conservation's National Moth Recording Scheme's annual conference in Birmingham yesterday but on the way up I stopped off just inside the M25 at Epsom Common to meet two strangers in a car park. I was in fact there to meet two pan-species listers who I have been in regular contact for nearly a year now online, Seth Gibson and Danny Widerscope (Danny, as I can't remember your surname and thought it was Widerscope anyway, I'm gonna stick with that).

It was quite interesting swapping a few ticks, something I greatly enjoyed and I got three out of it (a vascular plant and two micro-moths) while Seth got 13 (10 bryophytes, two vascular plants and a lichen). It's quite interesting how pan-species lister's lists change when they briefly meet, I could quite get into this side of natural history.

Anyway, first up was Barberry. It's not often that I actually tick twigs but this was clearly alive. Strange three sided thorns, I am rather surprised I have not seen this before. Seth's also pretty good on his psychids (far better than I) and I was impressed that he showed me two dust covered balls of fluff that actually contain the larvae of tiny little moths. Firstly are these strange little galleries that are tightly adpressed to the bark, winding their way through Lepraria lichens, it's Infurcitinea argentimaculella and I wonder whether I have completely over looked this in the past.

There's more though. This psychid was one with a three living case but it's a similar idea. This one is Narycia duplicella. I ended the day on 3749 species. After this I head north up the M40 and beat my record for the number of Red Kites I have ever seen in one journey but that will have to wait for another post...