The Lyons Share

I'm two thirds of the way to seeing ten thousand species! Yesterday I went to Graffham Common with my old boss/new volunteer aculeate surveyor, James Power. As has been the way with Graffham Common this year, we were not dissapointed. The highlight for me was seeing SEVEN of these stonking longhorn beetles. I've only recorded Stictoleptura rubra once before a couple of years ago in Suffolk under fairly strange circumstances, so I was pleased to see six males and one female (the female is the big red one that looks a bit like a cardinal beetle). She was beaten of fallen pine foliage where all the males were nectaring on bramble or flying about. It's only the third Sussex record where the first was recorded in 2014 at Iping Common. We now have quite a list of interesting longhorns from Graffham Common over the years. 

Other highlights included this hand caught Golded-haired Robberfly Choerades marginatus.