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And the field season starts with a bang!
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Sunday, 12 March 2017 21:00
So yesterday was the first proper day out in the field in 2017 and what an awesome day it was! Andy Phillips organised a BAS day to our Old Lodge reserve Our Mission; to find Thanataus formicinus, a spider not seen in Britain since 1969. We didn't find it but it didn't matter as we found loads of other cool stuff and I soon forgot I was even looking for it. What was great for me about this day is it's the first day out in the field on one of SxWT's reserves since I created the spreadsheet. It's changed the way I do natural history!
So far we added 14 species to the site list (but expect this to go up as the other's identifications come in). Even better though, three of these species were new to my own list and two of these were entirely new to any Sussex Wildlife Trust reserve. So here is a breakdown of those 14 species and some notes on them. What's even more remarkable is that Chris Bentley and I did a very detailed invertebrate survey on the site in 2013, just shows you can never cover a site enough.
Aculeates (both of these are common and shows the site is quite under-recorded for aculeates)
Andrena bicolor
Andrena nitida
Beetles
Aphodius sphacelatus (common as muck - literally being a dung beetle)
Anisotoma orbicularis (new for me and the site)
Acalles ptinoides (Nb - I've only seen this once at Iping in 2012. This time it was in the suction sampler)
Stenus kiesenwetteri (IUCN VULNERABLE. New to me. Old Lodge and any Trust reserve. The highlight of the trip...so far. Again it was in the suction sampler but spotted in the tray by Laurie Jackson)
Psyllids
Livia junci (AKA Mr Weird - a very odd looking psyllid)
Ticks
Ixodes ricinus which was everywhere.
Bugs
Stygnocoris sabulosus
Millipedes
Blaniulus guttulatus (sieved from Spahgnum)
Spiders
Nesticus cellulanus (first time I've seen this away from caves)
Pholcomma gibbum (that's the photo above taken by Evan Jones - I've only seen it once before at Selwyn's Wood)
Ozyptila atomaria (an adult female in the suction sampler below)
Hypselistes jacksoni (a new one for me and any SxWT reserve. I thought that this was going to be a Hypomma but I soon realised it had a pair of eyes on top of the butt on its head that Hypomma bituberculatum doesn't have. It's clearly uncommon with a north western distribution. This fits with Old Lodge being higher and colder, it's a bit more like an upland moor than the West Sussex heaths.
This is Salticus cingulatus, a nice jumping spider not new to the site but the first time I've photographed it. A big thanks to everyone for an awesome day in the field.
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