The state of pan-species listing at the end of 2018
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Wednesday, 2 January 2019 11:16
What a year. As I edge closer to going part time freelance, I have never been busier and add in a relapse of my slipped disc at the end of the year, I'm really looking forward to a fresh start in 2019. I'm totally gutted that yet again I did not have time to get down to the meet up. It sounds like a really well organised event by Sally and I wish I had got down there to Cornwall. Big changes in my life are planned in the next three months to make more time for stuff like this so if I don't make it down to one this year, I am truly doomed.
I did get a chance to go and see the pan-species lister's event of the decade, the Beluga. I wonder how many people saw this in the end? Never thought I'd get Beluga before Otter.
Anyway, first up is what is going on in the rankings. I think it only fair to put in the top 20 now rather than the top 10 as it's gone from being quite static at this end of the rankings (between 2016 & 2017 there was no movement in the top ten) to being quite a dynamic place. So apologies for all the missing figures at this stage.
2017 | 2018 | Change | |||||
1 | Jonty Denton | 12483 | 12599 | 116 | |||
2 | Dave Gibbs | 11327 | 11575 | 248 | |||
3 | Mark Telfer | 7603 | 8239 | 636 | |||
4 | Nicola Bacciu | 7045 | 7305 | 260 | |||
5 | Graeme Lyons | 6840 | 7206 | 366 | |||
6 | Brian Eversham | 7030 | 7203 | 173 | |||
7 | The late Eric Philp | 6878 | 6878 | 0 | |||
8 | Matt Prince | 6483 | 6800 | 317 | |||
9 | Richard Comont | 6362 | 6759 | 397 | |||
10 | Steve Lane | ??? | 6729 | ??? | |||
11 | Simon Davey | 6722 | 6722 | 0 | |||
12 | Tony Davis | ??? | 6541 | ??? | |||
13 | Malcolm Storey | ??? | 6274 | ??? | |||
14 | Paul Bowyer | ??? | 6036 | ??? | |||
15 | Tim Hodge | ??? | 5828 | ??? | |||
16 | John Coldwell | ??? | 5769 | ??? | |||
17 | Andrew Cunningham | ??? | 5725 | ??? | |||
18 | Stephen Plummer | ??? | 5611 | ??? | |||
19 | William Bishop | ??? | 5518 | ??? | |||
20 | Kev Rylands | ??? | 5450 | ??? |
Mark has made the biggest progress in the top ten with an increase of 636 species! Followed by Richard with 397 and surprisingly me at 317. I don't really get chance to do any pan-listing away from work and freelance these days but it shows what you can rack up with a few jobs out of county. A job in Kent and a few jobs in Surrey were real highlights, as was a cracking survey in East Sussex in the Brede Valley. But this is nothing compared to listers like Calum Urquhart and James McCulloch who are flying up the rankings!
I have moved up to fifth place literally today so it may not last very long, Simon Davey has left the top ten and Steve Lane has entered. I can't believe that out of the top 20, I have only ever met 12 of you. The 100th lister is now Nigel Jones with 1552 species. Everyone in the top 100 has now seen over 1500 species. I think that's pretty impressive!
With the top listers per taxa, there are very few new listers BUT lots of new records (in bold).
2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||||||
Algae | Jony Denton | 288 | 288 | 290 | ||||
Slime Moulds | Malcolm Storey | 51 | 51 | 53 | ||||
Protists | Jony Denton | 24 | 24 | 24 | ||||
Lichens | Simon Davey | 1228 | 1228 | 1228 | ||||
Fungi | Malcom Storey | 1391 | 1391 | 1513 | ||||
Bryophytes | Paul Bowyer | 480 | 503 | 549 | ||||
Vascular Plants | John Martin | 2278 | 2292 | 2335 | ||||
Sponges | Richard Comont | 12 | 12 | 14 | ||||
Comb-jellies | Richard Comont, Jerry Lanfear, James Harding-Morris, Seth Gibson, Jeff Blincow, Richard Lawrence & Calum Urquhart | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||||
Cnidarians | Richard Comont | 44 | 45 | 45 | ||||
Molluscs | Richard Comont | 222 | 224 | 228 | ||||
Bryozoans | Richard Comont | 27 | 30 | 30 | ||||
Annelids | Richard Comont | 51 | 55 | 56 | ||||
Platyhelminth worms | Brian Eversham | 18 | 18 | 18 | ||||
Sea-spiders | Richard Comont | 4 | 4 | 4 | ||||
Arachnids | Jonty Denton | 493 | 499 | 513 | ||||
Myriapods | Mark Telfer | 77 | 81 | 87 | ||||
Crustaceans | Richard Comont | 99 | 100 | 102 | ||||
Springtails | Richard Comont | 44 | 45 | 54 | ||||
3-tailed Bristletails | Mark Telfer | 8 | 8 | 9 | ||||
Odonata | Mark Telfer, Dave Gibbs | 48 | 48 | 48 | ||||
Orthopteroids | Mark Telfer | 41 | 41 | 42 | ||||
Hemipteroids | Jonty Denton | 861 | 875 | 891 | ||||
Hymenoptera | Dave Gibbs | 809 | 809 | 834 | ||||
Coleoptera | Mark Telfer | 2632 | 2739 | 2766 | ||||
Diptera | Dave Gibbs | 3146 | 3146 | 3184 | ||||
Butterflies | Seth Gibson, Stuart Read, Christopher Glanfield | 62 | 62 | 62 | ||||
Moths | Tony Davis | 1628 | 1635 | 1647 | ||||
Remaining small | Jonty Denton | 195 | ||||||
195 | 195 | |||||||
Echinoderms | Richard Comont | 19 | 20 | 20 | ||||
Tunicates | Richard Comont | 22 | 24 | 24 | ||||
Fish | Richard Comont | 97 | 98 | 98 | ||||
Reptiles | Richard Comont | 9 | 10 | 10 | ||||
Amphibians | Jonty Denton | 13 | 13 | 13 | ||||
Birds | Dave Gibbs | 527 | 527 | 530 | ||||
Mammals | Mark Telfer, Dave Gibbs | 64 | 64 | 64 | ||||
Other animals | Jonty Denton | 36 | 36 | 36 | ||||
TOTAL | 17051 | 17243 | 17618 |
The total maximum number of species has risen by 879 between the end of 2015 and the end of 2018. That's pretty impressive! Massive leaps in fungi and bryophytes by Malcom Storey and Paul Bowyer respectively. I continue to not be a top lister for anything. I think this is my new angle, the highest ranking lister not top for anything. Oh wait, I'm not even that. Nicola isn't top for anything either and she's ahead of me. That's pan-species listing though, sometimes I feel like 'too little butter spread over too much bread.' I can live with that though. I think butterflies could be my easy win if I went and got the rare breeding species.
The top ten sites are almost exactly the same but Dawlish Warren (at 3866) has knocked Sutton Fen (at 3708) off the tenth place. This part of the website still doesn't get as much use I would have hoped but I am just as much a problem as I have updated totals for Ebernoe Common but have not had chance to enter the data yet. There are 73 sites on the rankings now, up from 63 last year so I am glad that this is still growing.
There are 371 people on the Facebook group and 560 users on the website. Only 232 of these are on the rankings however.
I wish everyone a happy new year and happy listing in 2019!
I've met 14 of the Top 20 listers - woohoo, a category where I score more highly than you do...finally! :)