16:04 - Harry Witts: "I don't think I would ever recognise a grasshopper new to Britain".
16:07 - Harry Witts: "GRAEME! Bring a big net! I think I have a new grasshopper!"
So yeah, here's Sphingonotus caerulans Slender Blue-winged Grasshopper - photographed by Joss Carr. It's very likely the first record of this species to naturally arrive on our shores. So how on Earth did I find myself in such a position not a month after the Verge Cricket madness?
Well, this story isn't about me, it's about the fantastic contingent of Gen Z naturalists who are making big waves in the British natural history world - many of whom are doing so using the pan-species listing approach to natural history. Two such naturalists are Harry Witts and Joss Carr. In the last couple of years, Harry has come out and shadowed me on a few different surveys in Kent and Sussex and this summer Joss has set up some fantastic PSL field meetings in London, many of which I have attended and enjoyed - they are both smashing it! PSLers are (in most parts) a sociable bunch. As I have said for years, it's not really competitive, it's collaborative and we all learn from each other. Pushing each other up not down. PSL is all about breaking down barriers and shoving gatekeeping into the history books. I always had this belief that if I had started PSLing in my teens, it would have fast-tracked me into being a more knowledgeable naturalist at an earlier age. It genuinely does just that, and now there is a growing number of super-capable young naturalists out there, many of which I hope will end up working in the conservation sector and many who already are.
After coming out with me for the day at Blean in April, Harry offered to return the favour by spending a weekend in Essex in August. Harry also invited Joss Carr, as not two weeks earlier they had had a brilliant day out at our destination - Colne Point, even finding Geocoris megacephalus new to Britain there (I had this bug new to Jersey in 2024). This is a coastal SSSI managed by Essex Wildlife Trust.
Colne Point is a sensitive site, with Harry arranging access to survey it through his work. It's pretty dangerous too, you can easily get cut off an a really high tide if you are not careful.
Of course, I wanted some lifers (I was hoping for Ground Lackey in the evening) but was also keen to get some year ticks for the 6000 Species Challenge. Dittander, Golden-samphire, Hog's Fennel and Shrubby Sea-blite were all year-ticked from the car! The first invert of the day was Clouded Yellow. Literally anything could happen...and it did.
First lifer of the day was the tiny picture wing Myopites eximia. This fly galls Golden-samphire.
And in the same first sweep, the first of many of the saltmarsh form of Rhysodromus histrio. This weirdly yellow form is incredibly different to the heathland one, I am amazed it's not a different species. Much less contrasting but clearly the same shape.
The first vac had this metallic purple beauty in it! The sea-lavender feeding Pseudaplimonus limonii. I rarely see this weevil as we have so little saltmarsh in Sussex. So little in fact, that I was getting year tick after year tick.
I got another lifer in the form of the long overdue Dun Sentinel Assiminea grayana! It seems to be really common on saltmarsh on the Thames Gateway and Essex coasts, despite being Nationally Scarce. Pleasingly proportioned.
Joss was on fine form with hoppers as per usual and has found some really significant county firsts there. As we headed to the shingle, I spotted a very large bee fly, which we think has to be Dune Villa Villa modesta. Here's one of Harry's record shots before we missed it with our nets. That's another long overdue lifer for me.
By the time we hit the shingle, Geocoris megacephalus was pretty much the commonest insect! Around this time Harry pulled two immature Heliophanus from his pocket he'd found on a previous visit. The abdomens were covered in golden and copper-coloured hairs but with no white spots. Harry thought they were likely Heliophanus auratus and I was inclined to agree. We knelt down and almost immediately Harry spotted an adult male Heliophanus running around on the shingle. I got hold of it and was happy to confirm this as an adult male Heliophanus auratus! My 565th spider in the British Isles. Here's the adult male, the legs are tri-coloured, while the abdomen is covered in dense shiny hairs that gives it a very distinct appearance. I went on to sieve another from Marram nearby but we didn't get any in the sucker.
Here's those two incredible immatures.
I also recorded Zelotes longipes - my first away from Jersey!
It's now 16:04 and things are about to get interesting.
I leg it over to where Harry is just 10 m away and he soon gets me on to an unusual orthopteran. There is talk of blue wings but the animal I am looking at looks nothing like the Blue-winged Grasshoppers Oedipoda caeruelscens I know well from Jersey. Smaller, slimmer, less contrasty, differently-coloured and with seemingly proportionally longer wings. I have a good side view with my close focus bins and the thing that struck me was the constricted neck and raised head. I think I exclaimed "It looks like a locust!".
Here's Harry's shots taken at a safe distance. This really captures the moment for me.
Quite hard to spot, isn't it? Until it flies!
I heavily cropped Harry's shot here to show the view I had through my bins, showing that oddly-positioned head.
I attempted to get it in the net but it crawled out from under it and flew. Long-winged but with very pale blue (almost white) hindwings. Again, quite unlike Blue-winged Grasshopper. It also flew quite some distance for a grasshopper, but we sprinted after it relocating it almost instantly among the shingle. I wish someone could have filmed it, it felt like comedy gold as we 'moved as one' as Harry described it. I soon had my hands on it and transferred it to the dirtiest pot in the entomological world - at least we were not going to lose it now and could get some record shots of that hind wing indoors.
I was utterly convinced this was some other species of grasshopper with blue wings. Joss had found a candidate on his phone, read out the differences and tracked down a 2024 record on the Eurostar tracks at Folkstone on iNaturalist before I had even unlocked my phone (how do Gen Z work their phones so quickly?). Anyways, I was pretty sure we had nailed the ID with Sphingonotus careulans. I called Peter Sutton up straight away. As if all the Verge Cricket/Praying Mantis/Blue-winged Grasshopper madness wasn't enough!
The next day, Joss got a shot of the hind wing and the lovely shot at the top of this post. Soon after Peter Sutton confirmed our ID was correct.
And here's me, Joss and Harry enjoying the sunset as we wait to do a bit of dusking.
I spotted this Ray's Knotgrass on the beach.
Harry found Armadillidium album under some logs. He was on fire!
Dusking wasn't the greatest but we did see lots of Sandhill Rustics, which I have not seen since before Joss was born.
And then we called in on the way back to look for Agonopterix putridella - which Harry spotted! A super-rare micro that only feeds on Hog's Fennel! What a day. Utterly unforgettable.
Time for Bob Dylan to provide the sound track for my pensive conclusion...
Our invertebrate fauna becomes more continental by the day, mostly down to man-made climate change, with species colonising our shores almost as fast we can write them down. Furthermore, that rate of change is increasing, it's as if we are heading towards an 'entomological singularity' if you will. This leads me to a state of cognitive dissonance, where I feel both joy and terror simultaneously at seeing these novel species. I want both more of them AND less of them. It's vital that we record them though. So lots of keen eyes on the ground is essential in all of this.
However, the great news is, I think that the young PSLers are doing a great job at carrying the torch of natural history, biological recording and wildlife conservation into the uncertain future that awaits us all. They're not just brilliant naturalists for their age - they're brilliant naturalists period! I don't just go out with them to show them stuff, I go out with them as I know they'll get me a load of lifers too! I absolutely love being shown things by people decades younger than me. It's great fun seeing PSL thriving in this way.
If you want to get into PSL, it's totally free and you can sign up here www.panspecieslisting.com
I have just got back from a well-needed mini break, something I always do to mark the change between the winter ID and write up period and the start of my field season. A few months back, Nathan Jackson (one of a bunch of incredibly talented young naturalists from Bangor University) invited me a long to a trip he was planning from Bangor to Falmouth. Now I was down there in November where I spent some time with Finley Hutchinson (one of a bunch of incredibly talented young naturalists from the Penryn campus of Exeter University). Furthermore, we coincidentally had a contingent from Hampshire, including John and Tara, as well as my mate Kim from Brighton and loads of other people. We mopped up back in November with just a few of us, so with the dozens of eyes in the rock-pools this time, with very much a focus on nudibranchs, there was no way I was missing this. I could only do four nights though, so have had to suck up getting gripped off by amazing stuff being found before I arrived and (still ongoing) after I left. Yet I cannot complain, this was one of the best four days natural history of my life.
Yet the opening image of this post is of two bull Killer Whales (this is one of Nathan's shots). Apparently, they are slightly larger than the largest nudibranch, this was quite possibly one of the most magical and unexpected moments of my life. So how on Earth did we go from turning rocks for sea slugs to running after Orcas along the cliffs like feral children? You'll have to wait...
Day 1. Karen and I left Brighton at 3.55 am to arrive at Falmouth for 10.00 am, comfortably making the first low tide. Finley suggested some new areas at Tunnel Beach and that place was really productive. So I think we collectively saw at least 20 species of nudibranch on this trip, I saw 19 I think and eight of those were lifers. First up, check out this little nerd! Rostanga rubra is such a cute little dude, it's the only only nudibranch to wear corrective lenses over its rhinophores.
My second nudibranch lifer of the day is also another common one down there but I think its my favourite. As pure white as the driven snow, with the weirdest shaped chocolate-coloured rhinophores. The best thing about this is that it is perfectly camouflaged to hide among the pure-white nudibranch eggs that it specialises in feeding on. Favorinus branchialis. See if you can spot this one hiding in the eggs. What I love about this one, is that it makes finding nudibranch eggs even more exciting. I really fancy some shredded coconut after looking at these pictures.
But Rainbow Sea Slug Babakina anadoni was playing hard to get, then I stumbled on this huge animal. Not the first time I have seen one but it's such a wonderful moment every time you turn a rock and see this. Even better though is showing it to people for the first time, it's such a privilege to be able to do that with wildlife this spectacular.Probably the best sea slug I found I didn't even photograph, Okenia nodosa is scarce at Falmouth (but really common at my nearest patch). Next up, a long overdue lifer for me under the first rock Cameron Wilkins turned over. Jorruna tomentosa, I didn't get a good photo but there were quite a few of these rather plain but attractive little dorids about.
Karen spotted her own Limacia clavigera, they are really common down there.
Nathan walked right up to this stalked jellyfish, which was a lifer for me (I have only seen three species, all of which I saw at Falmouth in the first two days of this trip). This one is Halycistus octoradiatus with those odd tubercles at the base of the stubby tentacles. It's a rather sickly green colour too.
And this snail was quite the looker, we had one here and one at Silver Steps the following day. Raphitoma purpurea, yet another lifer.
The weather was glorious on that first day, so there was some chance for some spidering in Falmouth after, Ero aphana was popular and I managed three year ticks. I got sunburnt on the last day of March!
Now, I am well known for being pretty intense and having a lot of energy, but I had to look after my health on this trip and not start my field season in a state. So I only managed to go out on one night time session, the first night. After four hours sleep I was back out of the hotel wandering around the rocks but I was feeling really rough, so didn't make it all night. It was magic though!
Louis hoyed out a massive Lobster!And it wasn't long before Nathan made the kind of sounds that can only mean he'd found something exciting. Now I only managed a rubbish shot in a pot, but this is Calma gobioophaga. This nudibranch only feeds on the eggs of gobies, and apparently the eyes of the tiny fish it eats on the eggs can be spotted in their serrata! Yolanda told me about these last year, so this was an exciting find for everyone!
Day 2 (technically). It's just gone midnight now and Nathan spotted these two Atalodoris pusilla sitting next to each other like a pair of slippers. My fifth nudi lifer of the trip.
Louis got me onto these tiny but gorgeous little sea slugs, also a lifer (but not a nudibranch). They look like something out of Pokemon, they were only a couple of mm long though. Like a cross between a stegosaurus, a flower and a slug - Placidia dentrica is not rare but it is friggin' awesome!
As usual, fish are out and about more at night so I was pleased to find my first Montagu's Sea Snail in years and this was a lifer for all the Bangor lot.
As it neared 1.00 am, I felt like death warmed up, so headed home. They only went and found two more nudis that I had not seen. This one is Okenia aspersa in blob mode. Nudi lifer number six! I think six more Babakina were found that night too!
Talk about starting with a bang! By this point though it feels like Day 4 when it's still only Day 2! We head to Silver Steps. Finley found a big patch of nudi eggs covered in Favorinus, and there was a speedy Facelina annulicornis there too. We picked this up last November but this is the first time I have got a half-decent shot if it. What an absolute stunner that is!
We had two more staked jellyfish in the same gully, neither were new for me but I love seeing these. Calvadosia cruxmelitensis.
And Calvadosia campanulata.I found another Babakina. At least three were found that morning.
Now bear in mind it's April fool's day. I was just taking some shots of this when Finley yells that there is a report of Orca's swimming past the Lizard! It took us about ten minutes to realise the weight of what was happening before galavanising into action - just as Tylan had arrived, to see a wave of be-wadered rock-poolers running towards him. No, straight past him, to their cars! We all piled down to the Lizard (Tylan too) and about an hour later, this happened...
I love this shot of Yolanda's with the cliffs in too! Here are a couple of Nathan's. You could see the white behind the dorsal fin, even through my rubbish binoculars.It was Finley who got onto them really quickly though, like in less than 5 minutes. Finley followed by myself likely to be the first people to see Orca and Rainbow Sea Slug in the same hour. Here's the prostrate form of me creating my own mud bath in excitement. Tylan here is wondering if its possible to suction sample an Orca.
Day 3. This was quite possibly my favorite day. Helford Passage from 11.00 am to 2.00 pm on the sandy Eel-grass and then Kynance Cove with Tylan and Paul from 3.00 pm to 6.00 pm.Auger Shells, three species of pipefish, cockles in numbers but it was this huge egg mass that got me excited, as I had never seen anything like it before. It turns out to be the egg mass of Pleurobranchus membranaceus. They had an adult after I left which I missed but the eggs were cool enough!
One nudibranch was everywhere - Amphorina andra. Now this might be something else entirely in the genus, we'll have to wait and see as Finley is going to get the DNA done one one but for the time being I am calling it that, will edit if there are changes. The orange form was most common.And I had a few of these darker ones with mottled serrata. They really are quite stunning.
Then Yolanda caught a Nursehound with her bare hands! I have only ever seen the egg cases, so chuffed to see an adult.
Here's a Spiny Cockle.And Finley showing three species together. Acanthocardia paucicostata (the small one - which I had there new to Cornwall in November). Spiny Cockle Acanthocardia aculeata on the right and Rough Cockle Acanthocardia tuberculata on the left. It's 2.00 pm and my alarm rings, so I have to leave everyone to head to Kynance!
It was just the three of us (Tylen Berry, Paul Gainey and myself). The weather was glorious. Now I am really here to year list spiders, bugs and rare plants! I ticked off Hairy Greenweed and Cornish Heath soon enough, along with Lousewort and Heath Milkwort. Choughs were everywhere.
Tylan found most of the rare spiders instantly! Gnaphosa occidentalis under the first rock. I spotted an adult male Aelurillus v-insignitis. Euophrys herbigradus was in every suction!
Ty found an adult female Porrhoclubiona genevensis. We had about 15 Thyme Lacebugs too. As we found Segestria bavarica as we were watching the Orcas the day before, that was pretty much the whole set. We went on to look for House Centipede under some rocks, it was fruitless but this tiny bug caught me eye. It's Taphropeltus hamulatus. A really scarce bug with only five records on the NBN, one of which is for Kynance! I have been looking out for this for years.
We scrambled down the slope for a few ants. Ponera testacea somehow appeared in one of Tylan's pots. Lasaeola prona ticked for the year when Ty found two rather odd looking crabbies. Now I see Ozyptila claveata all the time on the chalk, so I was sure they were not that. Ty sees Ozyptila blackwalli enough to know it wasn't that either. Could this be Ozyptila scabricula?! Indeed it was! Check out these perfect little gargoyles. Ty found another male too, these being the first in Cornwall since 1968 and an entirely new hectad. Mad for a site he works really hard, and it just goes to show no matter how hard you work a site, there are still treasures to be found! This is my 564th spider in the British Isles. I was not expecting a spider lifer this week.
Day 4: Winding now, one final trip to Tunnel Beach produced much of the same, but Finley was on fire with his small crustaceans, including pointing Vicky Barlow to search the mouth of a huge Spiny Spider Crab for a host-specific thing called Isaea montagui, what a bizarre creature.I found a Topknot the size of my face.
When suddenly a report of a Killdeer comes in from the other end of the county! "Oh god, it's happening again" I hear Karen mutter. Another mad thing with 'kill' in the name to twitch. Scrambling up the rocks and piling into cars, and an hour later I am looking at my first Killdeer (thanks to Finley for the photo) in the same hour (nearly) as a Rainbow Sea Slug. Thanks to James for the lift (and for getting me back in time for the dinner we had planned, I arrived at the restaurant on time to the minute).
This has all been a bit rushed. I am starting field work in a couple of hours but if I didn't get this done today it wouldn't happen. There are likely some typos and errors in here, so please let me know. A HUGE thanks to everyone involved for sharing their finds and knowledge, a massive thanks to Finley and Nathan for organising stuff. Once again though, it's great seeing so many young people get as excited as I do when I see new things, it's absolutely awesome. More of this please!
Oh and a quick update on the 6000 Species Challenge! As of today I am on 1,756 species (29.3%). A couple of days ago I hit 1,000 inverts for the year (on 1,022) including 118 molluscs and 221 spiders. Yet, as the field season starts, the year-listing begins in earnest today!
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