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My top ten natural history highlights of 2024
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Tuesday, 31 December 2024 16:35
I had a fantastic year in 2024, with all of the surveys I have written up so far returning record numbers of invertebrate species — yet many other people reported the opposite, showing that the truth of what is going on with our invertebrates is far more complex than the "invertebrate apocalypse" that some people claim we are experiencing. At the time of writing, I still have 400 tubes of inverts to go and have already entered 52,993 records of c3,900 species — I will definitely beat my record of c55,000 records last year. Here is a map of my recording in 2024, pleased to see I did more recording in my home hectad than anywhere else.
As I am closing in on 10,000 UK species I am pleased to see that I am still adding something like 400 new species a year. Many of these were incredible wildlife highlights of large, charismatic animals. Not the tiny 1 mm beetles I thought would dominate the lifers at this stage.
So what were the highlights? Here they are in reverse order.
10). A few lifers in my back garden. I love that after 35 years of mothing I can still get new species by pressing a button on a wall and waiting eight hours. At the top of this blog is my first Golden Twin-spot and here, my first Plumed Fan-foot.
9). 1500 species challenge. The reason this didn't score higher is we failed to achieve it and it was HARD. We (Dave Green and I) did however, record and identify 1,158 species (of which 622 were invertebrates) in a 24-hour period of continuous recording and raised just shy of £3,000 for Sussex Wildlife Trust. We also made some really valuable records, like this Pilemostoma fastuosa and Brown Hairstreak larva.
8). The first Midia midas in the UK in 12 years! A brief trip with Esmond Brown to Burnham Beeches resulted in me finding the first Midia midas in the UK in 12 years. I was not expecting a sub-adult male to be identifiable but they really are. The palps are very large and have distinct protrusions in all the right places.
7). Writing this book about pan-species listing. I have only just sent off my manuscript to the publisher, so a long way to go yet but PSL is going from strength-to-strength. We have a new website (you can sign up for free here). Mike, Andy and I have put a lot of time in over the last 18 months to make this site work really well, I love it. We also ran a stall at Global Bird Fair (doing it again this year) and Mark Lawlor designed this new logo! It's a great time to be into pan-species listing. My list currently stands at 9,223 species! I am perhaps two years away from 10,000 UK species. There are more people on the main rankings on the new site in less than a year than there were on the old site after 10 years! Check it out. BTW, the only reason this isn't higher up my top ten is how much I didn't enjoy writing until the last three months.
6). Surveying Burton Pond for Sussex WT. I am still to write this one up but there were some great highlights from this survey. My first record of Light Crimson Underwing (the larva) and the small malachite beetle Cerapheles terminatus was new to Sussex.
5). Two species new to the British Isles; the beetle Colotes maculatus at Chyngton Brooks in East Sussex and the bug Geocoris megacephalus from Jersey.
4). Surveying a dairy farm in West Sussex. I think perhaps a dairy farm was the site I was looking forward to surveying the least but it proved to be the standout survey of the year. I made 5,068 records of 1,237 species (of which 893 were invertebrates). It ended up being the largest list of inverts of any survey I have done. Here is a collage of some of the highlights. And a close up of the spider Hyptiotes paradoxus.
3). Surveying Castle Hill and the Down east of Brighton. Still to be written up yet but I had some fantastic time on the farmland and Downs east of Brighton. Discovering a new population of Wart-biters was a real surprise. Other highlights included the rare weevil Tychius polylineatulus, lots of Early Spider-orchids and my first record of the moth the Wormwood (as a larva).
2). A fishing trip off Brighton. This was just sublime! Undulate Ray, Starry Smooth Hound and Common Squid.
1). Jersey rock pooling. This was just the most magic thing ever. I couldn't get enough of all the nudibranchs. Here are just a few of the highlights Facelina auriculata, Parasitic Anemone and Green Ormer. But it was the immature Spiny Squat Lobster that got away before I could photograph it that stole the show.
And just because I can, here are nine nudibranchs! Five of these were in Jersey rockpools (the other four were from Eastbourne). I have now seen 12 species of nudibranch, I would like to see more of them.
Here's to 2025!!!
Great photo's Graeme. I too had a good 2024, I'm pretty sure I saw your Pale Crimson Underwing's dad!
I won't be publishing a top ten, not least because I don't have as many wonderful pictures, but the FSC course at Preston Montford on using microscopes and keys, run by Martin Harvey, was definitely my number 1.