An Alternative Natural History of Sussex.
This blog shows the highlights of my day to day findings as a naturalist and ecologist living and working in Sussex. Delivered with a pinch of nihilism, a dash of sarcasm and absolutely no tweeness, here is my attempt to show natural history as it really is: Brutal, beautiful, uncompromising and fascinating...and occasionally ridiculous.
I have been studying natural history for some thirty years, nineteen in a professional capacity. I currently work in Sussex as a freelance entomologist, ecologist and botanist and specialise in nature reserve and rewilding management advice based on the interpretation of the surveys I carry out. I also run a number of identification courses. An advocate of the pan-species listing approach. My main areas of interest are birds, plants and invertebrates and a lot of my spare time is spent in the field. I am the county recorder for spiders and bugs.
Yesterday, as well as four species of ladybird beaten from one branch of a Douglas Fir, there was also a sub adult male Araneus (either triguttatus or sturmi). Now sturmi usually favours evergreens and trigutattus deciduous trees according to the texts. So you would think that it's more likely to be sturmi. Being a young male though, it wasn't possible to tell. I fed him some springtails from the garden today to see if he would grow. An hour later I checked to see if he had eaten any of them and it appeared dead. No, wait, it's just started shedding its skin. So I dashed to the microscope and set up the camera and recorded it shedding its skin! So cool...
Turns out it is Araneus triguttatus which is much commoner in Sussex than sturmi. I have never seen one with this particular colour pattern as they are usually much more orange with a distinctive pattern, not these three pale dots. My 125th spider for the year and another new species for Burton Pond. I would have missed this if I had looked 10 minutes later, so feeling pretty lucky.
So tussocking has really provided the goods this week at Woods Mill. I have added quite a few new species and I've become well entrenched in my new office. I managed to get the Victorian gentleman's desk into my new house with a little help from Niall Basquille. So, the new set up works well. Anyway, back to the tussocking. I have recorded the following species this week, those highlighted in bold were new species for me. Nothing particularly rare here but considering I walk around Woods Mill near daily, I was surprised to get so many ticks!
Carabids
Paradromius linearis
Philorhizus melanocephalus
Oxypselaphus obscurus
Agonum gracile (above photo)
Pterostichus vernalis
Agonum thoreyi
Staphylinids
Anotylus rugosus
Stenus bimaculatus
Paederus riparius
Sepedophilus nigripennis
Tachyporus spp.(I think I have at least two species but need to spend some more time on them)
Stenus spp. (I have at least another two species, I need more time though!)
Ladybirds
16-spot Ladybird
24-spot Ladybird
Woodlice
Common Pygmy Woodlouse
Common Striped Woodlouse
Common Shiny Woodlouse
Common Pill Woodlouse
Bugs
Drymus sylvaticus
Arachnids
Nemastoma bimaculatum
Ozyptila brevipes
Pisaura miribilis
Tibellus sp.
Leaf beetles
Phaedon tumidulus
What this illustrates is the importance of over-wintering structure for invertebrates. I also realised quite quickly that a tussock on the high and dry in or next to a wetland can be rammed with invertebrates.My 403rd species, making 10% of the 4034 or so UK species, was Agonum gracile above.
Also this week I have got hold of the key to springtails. I have two large specimens to look at today and see how the key works...
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