The Lyons Share

I took some good friends up Ditchling Beacon for some chalk-grassland moss identification this afternoon and it was dead good fun. A big thank you to Victoria Benstead-Hume, Carole Mortimer, Penny Green and Dave Green for making it a really fun day and providing marzipan biscuits and posh sandwiches and fresh coffee and ginger wine etc etc om nom nom lol. I think I've just made myself sick. Who would of thought four people would get so excited by mosses?! I also got five ticks out of it but only one of them was a moss...

Thanks ever so much to Victoria Hume for taking these photos, have a look at more of her impressive photography here on Flickr.

I had one moss species new for me, Campylium protensum.

And here are some of Carole's shots, thanks Carole. I think. Just remember that me and hairbrushes don't mix. I'm still picking 'things' out of my dreads now.

Here we have Neckera complanata.

And this one is Thamnobryum alopecurum.

And a large patch of Pseudoscleropdium purum. It's amazing what you can find hiding under big lumps of moss.

So, in between placing chunks of mosses about one's person, everyone did see a good selection of about 15 species which is about as much as most people can handle when they are new to bryology. It's a good place to start on the chalk as it's heavy in big attractive pleurocarps.

However, while this was going on I was taking advantage of a little 'tussocking' and it proved very worthwhile as I added four species to my list. Two beetles including this Chrysolina staphylaea and Philonthus marginatus.

This staphylinid is always a welcome sight. The rather smart Ontholestes murinus and this time the little bugger was completely motionless. The others I have seen were more like the cartoon character Taz in their demeanour.

I also added the ground bug Peretrichus lundii to my list. This harvestman looked different under the hand lens but really stood out under the microscope. My fifth new species of the day, the bizarre looking and southerly restricted Homalenotus quadridentatus. I end the day on 3771 species. Now, tomorrow we record the outdoor session of our next podcast too!

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!

Agonum gracile (above photo)

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!)

24-spot Ladybird

Common Pygmy Woodlouse

Common Striped Woodlouse

Common Shiny Woodlouse

Common Pill Woodlouse

Tibellus sp.

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...

More tussocking again at Woods Mill this lunch time. Best of all were a couple of mature male crab spiders that I was able to identify to species. A genus completely new to me, Ozyptila brevipes. An amazing looking spider with some pretty strange club shaped hairs on the front of its cephalothorax and very close together eyes. We only looked at two tussocks, the most productive was a small clump of False Oat-grass on some high ground close to the wet sedgy area in Little Meadow. There were 30+ 16-spot Ladybirds Tytthaspis sedecimpunctata also present in this tussock, a species I was surprised was also a tick for me, although I know I have seen it often before, even at Woods Mill. Not sure why I have not recorded this one. The other tussock was of Soft Rush but this was not quite so productive.

I went into the gents at work today and looked up to see this little critter. It's a Buzzing Spider Anyphaena accentuata. I've only seen this spider once before at Eridge Rocks last summer. It's not all that scarce but if you look at the spider atlas, there appears to be a dearth of records in central and western Sussex. Is this the true distribution or is it just down to a lack of spider recording in Sussex? It's a nice spider all the same and really easy to identify, not only being the only one in the genus but the only one in the family!

I was chatting with Patrick Roper last week and he was telling me all about tussocking, something I have never tried. Simply sawing off a large grass tussock close to the ground (these ones were Cock's-foot) and shaking the tussock onto a white tray or sheet. So, Penny Green and I headed to the valley field with a saw and some white trays. I was surprised at just how much we saw, rove beetles were the most frequent beetles, followed by carabids and one leaf beetle. A few spiders and woodlice too. I have plenty of identifying to do down the microscope but that will have to wait for another day...