The Lyons Share

I had a great day at Butcherlands yesterday finishing the fifth visit of an invertebrate survey there. We are up to around 400 species now with some really interesting species turning up there. I have only seen this incredible picture-winged fly Merzomyia westermanni once before at Knepp a couple of years ago where I carried out a similar survey. It's associated with Hoary Ragwort which is abundant on both sites. On our reserves it's only ever been recorded at Ebernoe before but not since the 1980s!

But what I got most excited about was only the second record for West Sussex (and the first for any Trust reserve) of the Triangle Spider Hyptiotes paradoxus. So three days ago I was copied into a tweet showing this unusual spider had been seen at Kingley Vale. It's known to like Yew and I had always thought if it was going to turn up anywhere it would be in this part of the Downs (in fact I had thought I would find it at Levin Down). Anyway, at Butcherlands I swept it from a field of Soft Rush! Sixty species of spider have now been recorded at Butcherlands, nine (15%) of which have conservation status! That has been quite a surprise for a site that was arable 16 years ago.

And this is the second species new to the reserve network. A very odd looking gall on Ash called the Ash Key Gall Aceria fraxinivorus caused by mites.

I also met up with dawn Nelson for the latter half of the day and we swapped some skills. i had seen an interesting knotgrass but I am not so sure it will be anything special now. We called in to an area that had been coppiced and had responded with a huge patch of Orpine (albeit grazed hard by the Roe Deer). It was COVERED in the fly Rhingia rostrata. Dawn's reaction to the huge female Wasp Spider we found was fantastic! One more visit to go, I wonder what else we will find?

If you want to find invertebrates that specialise in feeding on only one plant, then it's a good idea to look at areas that have LOTS of that plant. So when I was out surveying ditch plants at Amberley Wildbrooks last week, I spotted a lot of Arrowhead in one ditch. Now this is the only place I have ever seen the scarce Donacia dentata and then only ever once. Try as I might I could not find any reed beetles on this particular patch of Arrowhead but I did notice these feeding signs. Now, is this likely to be Donacia dentata and if so, is it enough to make a record?

17/08/2017 UPDATE: Clive Turner via Facebook has confirmed this is the case.

Lots of Anthocomus rufus everywhere at the moment. Even had one on the office door at Southerham, a chalk-grassland site, far away from its wetland habitat!

Amberley has incredibly varied soil types, I was working on the more acidic areas last week. There the sandy ditch-slubbings are a brilliant home for Green Tiger Beetle burrows once consolidated, here at a greater density than I have ever seen before.

Some of the ditches here are looking AMAZING. really wide with a gently sloping shelf-like profile and a messy edge. Full of flowers and insects everywhere!

The one species that I had not seen before was this gall on Nettle caused by the fly Dasineura urticae. Also new to the entire reserve network.

Mike Edwards and I completed the June invertebrate survey for Waltham yesterday, starting and finishing early due to the heat. So afterwards I stayed out and went and mapped some key plants. Thanks to the SxBRC I finally tracked down the Common Meadow-rue there, about 25 plants present, last recorded in 2011.

The last time Pink Water-speedwell was recorded was 1977, before I was born some 40 years ago. I soon noticed it was galled and it didn't take long to find an adult of the weevil that caused the galls, Gymnetron villosulum (a Nb species new to the reserve network).

We also had lots of Skullcap leaf Beetle, recorded new to the reserve by Dave and I in the 1000species challenge.

Plus hundreds of Crudosilus ruficollis, a wetland soldier beetle that can look quite like the much commoner Cantharis nigra until you take a closer look. This is flatter, glossier with more feathered-antennae and a pitted pronotum.

WARNING: This post is stupid.

It's that time of year when I have to get up really early once or twice a week to carry out bird surveys. This morning I woke up twelve minutes before my alarm clock at the ungodly hour of 4:18 am. This meant I went to bed early, about 9:00 pm. When I have to have an early night, I pass out pretty quickly, so when Rachael comes in a few hours later, I'm out cold. Almost. See, I have a tendency to talk utter rubbish at these times and occasionally wake myself up laughing, hysterically sometimes. Last night was no exception, as I simply uttered the word:

"Fungalton"

WHAT THE HELL IS FUNGALTON?!? A mythical mushroom market town in the Midlands? An actual ton of toadstools? I have no idea. I can only think it was something to do with the West Weald Fungi Recording Group field meeting I attended yesterday at Whithurst Park. Other classics from the last two years include:

"There's a man over there dressed as a lamp post" (there wasn't)

"Can you smell wizards?" (we couldn't, actually I still can't)

And the all time mid summer 2013 classic:

"It will soon be time for my Christmas egg" (to this day, I have not received my Christmas egg)

Enough of this nonsense and time for some wildlife, I am a serious naturalist after all! The highlight of yesterday's field trip was not actually a fungus but rather a vascular plant that has eluded me for a number of years, despite searching for it. We stumbled across over twenty plants of Narrow-leaved Bittercress on a woodland ride. I still get a kick out of seeing new plants even if they're not in flower. 

I only added one fungi being Pale Brittlstem Psthyrella candolleana.

But I did see three new inverts. A spider (Pachygnatha listeri), a saproxylic beetle under oak bark (Cerylon histeroides) and this very cool Truffle Gall caused by the wasp Andricus quercusradicis. Growing out of the base of an oak tree, it really did look like a fungus but it's quite hard and woody and full of cells each containing a tiny larva. Now, I wonder what fresh madness I will dream up tonight (fortunately for everyone I only have about eight early starts left this year).

You've guessed it, I've been fungaling around (I hate the phrase 'fungal foray', it's so twee!) up at Oxshott Common. This area of Surrey is known to be the most heavily recorded site for fungi in the world, with over 3000 species being recorded there. So it was quite surprising to find this species new to the site only a few metres from the car park. It's the scarce bracket Plicatura crispa.

Everyone knows Turkeytail but this was a particularly smart specimen worthy of a photo. I see this fungus more than any other.

This was a new one for me, Leafy Brain. It's actually growing out of other bracket fungi!

And here is a fungus that looks like a bracket but isn't. It's the Oyster Rollrim growing out of pine, another new species for me. I added fifteen species in all (12 fungi, two moths and a gall wasp) with the help of the WWFRG and Tony Davis. I end the day on 4680 species.

Now for a bit of a rant. If there are any dog walkers reading that frequent Oxshott Common, or any other site for that matter, and you always take your dog's muck away, you can read on, smug in the knowledge that none of what I am about to say applies to you. I salute you. If however, you are one of the small minority who let their animals do their business in the woods for people like me to walk in, PICK YOUR DAMN MESS UP AND TAKE IT AWAY WILL YOU!?! Apart from the huge negative effects of years of nutrient input on the ecology, it's utterly disgusting. I could barely hold on to my breakfast at times today, it literally ruined the atmosphere. If I ever catch anyone letting their dog do this, I'll happily place the offending article in your pocket for you so you can take it away. But there in lies the problem. YOU NEVER SEE IT HAPPENING! Is there a secret code? Pick it up if there are people about but leave it where it falls if no one can see you? There were a number of such turds with my name on today, waiting silently in the woods for me to come innocently by. I'll catch someone one day though, no doubt when years of accumulated vitriol will come spewing out in a poorly judged way. In the mean time, I'll just go and breathe into a paper bag for a while. Preferably one with air freshener in it.

Finding things in quadrats is proving quite a good technique to add to my pan-species lit without having to really do anything. I added two species today. First off, what I am fairly sure is Cryptocephalus bilineatus. This is a Nb species that seems to have a concentration of records on the Downs, I was indeed at Southerham today.

Also in the quadrat, this gall on Hedge Bedstraw. In it was the larvae of the fly Geocrypta galii. Just a short one tonight as it's moth group and there is yet another exciting publication to get my hands on being unveiled tonight!

That's just a name I made up for this little leafhopper that I found in one of my quadrats today but you can see why. I didn't notice the markings until I blew the photos up on the screen. I'm pretty sure it's the rather common Allygus mixtus but I have used nothing more than the British Bugs website to come to this conclusion, not a key, so I make the identification tentatively. I was at Badlands today, monitoring vegetation. I decided to try and identify any invertebrates that I did not recognise within the quadrats but apart from a very wet bee, this was all I managed to get a photo of.

On the way past the big Aspen where I saw the Light Orange Underwings in the spring I spotted what looked like berries on some of the leaves. I thought that this gall looked easy enough to identify, it keyed out to the fly Harmandiola globuli. Frustratingly, there was no one home in the single specimen I collected so I can't even tick it. 

The meadows are looking great this year, with more Betony than I have ever seen. I'm surprised how lush it looks compared to this time last year.

Now, I have had two new books arrive today so I will be immersing myself in those for the next few hours. I think there may have to be several book reviews in the near future.

I went to Filsham Reedbed today and all the work that has been done there over the winter looks great. A miserable day though and I saw very little wildlife. This woody cigar-shaped swelling on a Common Reed stem, as far as I know, is the gall of the fly Lipara lucens and is known as a cigar gall (I find it hard to say cigar gall  without it sounding like cigargoyle!). I think it is the only species that produces this particular type of gall on reed. I have never seen the fly but there is a grub inside that woody cigar somewhere. They seem to be common in all the reedbeds I have been in but I know next to nothing about galls. The FSC book 'British Plant Galls' is really good and I'm itching to use it more this summer.
I also found this small (c4 mm) carabid which keyed out quite easily to Bembidion biguttatum. It was hiding in some fallen deadwood, it's associated with water and damp grassland and is quite common apparently. Sorry for the rubbish photo. I struggle with Bembidions, there are lots of  similar species but this one seemed very straight forward. Now, I'm hoping for some decent weather tomorrow!