The Lyons Share

The stream restoration at Woods Mill is looking good and the bare muddy edges there seem to be a little longer lasting than I was at first anticipating. As I walk along these edges I see lots of ground beetles and wolf spiders and thought it was time I gave them some more attention. I am only really doing this as a trial outside of work time but if it is succesful I may do it properly with a large sample size. In the mean time, I have three 'dry' traps out that I am looking at every day or two. This way I get to see the animals alive and 'em to the list!

I've been up twice to have a look and they have so far proved quite good:

Visit 1. 

Trap 1. Two Velia caprai (a female present that I was able to get to species so that was a new one!)

Trap 2.Three Bembidion illigeri (the most abundant beetle out there)

Trap 3. One B. illigeri and one Pterostichus sp.

Visit 2

Trap 1. Popped up due to water pressure beneath. Re-sited nearby.

Trap 2. Three B. illigeri. One adult male Pardosa (proxima?). Will get this checked today. Also one Heterocerus marginatus.

Trap 3. Nine B. illigeri.

Other species I have seen on the mud over the last two years there (but not yet in the traps) include Agonum muelleri, Agonum marginatum (above photo), Bembidion articulatum and Elaphrus riparius. I ended the 22nd March on 3817 species.

The moth trap at Woods Mill was pretty good yesterday with two Caloptilia stigmatella (the little micro that flew off last week).

And my annual attempts to string a Northern Drab out of a Lead-coloured Drab were again thwarted. These two moths are both LCDs but the one on the right gave me a brief moment of excitement. Will I ever see a Northern Drab?!