The Lyons Share

Here is a map of all the records of Canthophorus impressus that have been recorded in the UK since 1990. Many thanks to Tristan Bantock for letting me use these maps, If you haven't seen Tristan's website, British Bugs, then take a look. So suddenly my record at Southerham on Sunday is more significant. Being the first in Sussex since at least 1905 and the the first ever in East Sussex. It's also the furthest east since 1990 and is considerably east of what appears to be a species that is contracting in range, especially the east of its range. Take a look at the pre-1990 records!

Although I couldn't see any Bastard-toadflax there on Sunday, it is known from the site (thanks to Frances Abraham for the info). I will go back during the flowering period and have a look for it. It's scattered throughout Sussex so it will be worth looking for the bug elsewhere (Mount Caburn and Beachy Head for example). This might not be the most easterly record. Tristan also told me that he has assessed this species as 'Near Threatened' under the new IUCN criteria. So here is the beast again.

Bugs are my 15th most frequently posted label. So I figured it was about time I pulled together my shield bug list. Of the 33 shield bugs listed in Evans and Edmonson I have seen 19 (plus nymphs of one of the Odontoscelis species at Lakenheath last March). Of the ten squash bugs, I have seen four. Here are a few that have featured on my blog over the last three years in reverse order of appearance.

Box Bug. One of the squash bugs with their 'brick-like' texture. Now widespread, this was outside reception at Woods Mill.

Turtle Shieldbug. So far the only one I have ever seen was under a log last spring at Southerham.

Woundwort Shieldbug. Common enough in the right places.

New Forest Shieldbug. I only saw this because I saw a load of people with nets by the side of the road and stopped! It pays to be cheeky!

Juniper Shieldbug. I have seen this only at Levin Down.

Gorse Shieldbug.

Slender-horned Leatherbug. Only ever seen this once under a log on the edge of the Thames at Rainham.

Spiked Shieldbug. I see this occasionally on heathland.

Parent Bug

Red-legged (or Forest) Shieldbug

Dock Bug

Oh, I forgot. Of course I have FIVE squash bugs. The one that is NOT in Evans and Edmonson. The Western Conifer Seed Bug!

I went a quick walk up Southerham this afternoon and spotted this little shieldbug. I first thought it was going to be the Blue Shieldbug Zicrona caerulea but I thought the white border meant  it was a different species. A quick check of the Internet and I was pretty convinced I had the Down Shieldbug Canthophorus impressus. Now this is interesting for two reasons. One, the bug's only food plant is Bastard-toadflax, a scarce plant I have never found at Southerham and have only ever seen at Frog Firle in Sussex. Two, I currently can't find any records for it in Sussex! Fingers crossed this is a county first. It's surprising this thing is only Nb considering it has such specific requirements. I lost the specimen after taking two photographs, only to find it 30 minutes later followed by another one within centimetres of the first. This is my 4211th UK species.

Walking back to the car I had a Yellow Wagtail flying overhead. I cannot remember a time when my second summer migrant of the year was a Yellow Wag! I am yet to see a hirundine, a Wheatear or a Blackcap!

It could be something to do with that I have been watching the Walking Dead all day that I could come up with such a blog title for what was essentially a survey of Wild Daffodils, but as usual, it's the the less obvious things I encounter when I'm out, the underdogs, that interest me. Yes, Wild Daffodils have their own intrinsic beauty but this Toothwort that Nick Sturt got me on to, does it more for me. Looking like  dentures that have fallen out of a gawping botanist's mouth or a half-buried dead creature, Toothwort has to be one of the strangest plants out there. I find all the plants that can't be bothered to get their energy from the Sun hugely fascinating. Considering the host is Hazel, why is it so scarce at West Dean Woods?

It was 'bring your girlfriend to work day' last Thursday and Rachael was great at spotting daffs, even when they weren't flowering. She also spotted this Yellow Brain Fungus.

The mapping exercise was a success, I hope to show the results on here next week. For those that like Wild Daffodils, here are bunch of the showy little tarts. Apparently, they look amazing this year! Whatever floats your boat, give me Toothwort any day!

Finally, to dispel any myths that I'm not out there doing natural history or listing anymore, my current list is on 4209 and I've added 30 species (mostly invertebrates) since the start of March! All of this is from the two surveys I am doing at work this year, one at Filsham Reedbed with Alice Parfitt and the other at Old Lodge with Chris Bentley. I anticipate these surveys being the main source of additions to my list this year based upon the success of the March visits but that is another story...

Ten years ago I started working in the ecology department at the RSPB where I worked alongside some great naturalists and made many life-long friends. Matt Self, Malcolm Ausden, James Cadbury, Mark Gurney and of course, Mark Telfer. On the 6th August 2003, I went out into the field with Mark Telfer to Elmley Marshes on the Isle of Sheppey, north Kent to look for a very rare RDB1 beetle, the Pride of Kent Emus hirtus. I knew VERY little about beetles back then so the enormity of seeing one of these beasts almost as soon as we got out of the car was mostly lost on me. We then spent more than four hours searching cow pats for another individual on the hottest day of the year so far but to no avail. I even followed the back end of a herd of cows so we could search the freshest pats but we must have just been in the right place at the right time. 

There are some old records in the SxBRC database for this species but it's been a very long time indeed since someone has reported one in Sussex. So if you see something that looks like a cross between a devil's coach horse and a bumblebee hanging a round a cow pat, you may just have seen the Pride of Kent in Sussex. Many thanks to John Walters who took this photo of the very same specimen back in the day before it was released back into the wild...

P.S., don't confuse the Pride of Kent with the Maid of Kent. The Maid of Kent is a little larger, is always found near water and lacks the golden pubescence...

Must be one of the best names in natural history and I found a couple of these tiny snails on Thursday at Filsham Reedbed. Alice and I have started an invertebrate survey there to inform management and I was pleasantly surprised to have recorded 53 species on a cold day in March! That's just the species I could identify quickly. We have adopted the 'timed-count' methodology which has been so useful at other sites. Sieving was the main method we were using this time though rather than beating or sweeping and it was really productive! 

So far I have identified 23 beetles, 8 snails, 8 bugs, 7 spiders, 2 leeches, one moth and earwig. Eleven of these were new to me but the species I was perhaps most pleased to see was this tiny snail, Vertigo antivertigo. At 1.5 mm long, it would have been really easy to overlook it. I did manage to 'ping' one specimen with my forceps as I was trying to count the teeth!

Other highlights included three nationally scarce carabids; Demetrias imperialis, Odacantha melanura and Pterostichus anthracinus. I managed to identify a couple of female money spiders too, including the oddly patterned Lophomma punctata. This survey will carry on until the September or October and is the first completely in-house invertebrate survey we have carried out at the Trust. I expect we will get quite a list and learn lots about the site. Also heard my first Bearded Tit at Filsham. My list stands at 4192 species.

I would literally trade in family members to see this beetle. Sadly, the Sycophant Calosoma sycophanta is only ever a very rare vagrant to the UK so I am not likely to see one any day soon. So why am I featuring this at all...

...last Saturday I attended the carabid workshop at Dinton Pastures ran by Mark Telfer and John Walters. It was a great day, it's hugely important NOT to be an entomologist in isolation and having the opportunity to work through a correctly identified reference collection is worth its weight in gold. It's so great to see specimens of beetles that you have only ever seen in photographs. You really can't get the scale and the jizz from just a photograph. Mark and John are great at explaining things and the guides they are working on are really ground breaking. I particularly like Mark's English names for beetles. They are really well thought out but memorable and imaginative too. Naming species like this is a great responsibility, not just for entomologists as a memory aid but I think it's also part of our national heritage. Look at the English names for macro moths. Did they know when they named them that they were leaving behind one of the most fun things in natural history? I don't know if they did but natural history would be a poorer place without them and I feel Mark is doing something similar with carabids. I hope they are well used!

After an inspiring talk by John (including a section on Philorhizus species, making me realise just how significant a dip it was when I missed the tiny carabid Mab's Lantern Philorhizus quadrisignatus that Dave Gibbs found whilst torching oak trunks last year at Parham). I then spent the rest of the day keying out several families which I rarely encounter representatives of beyond the extremely common ones: Dyschirius, Anisodactylus (I will remember how to identify the Heath Shortspur Anisodactylus nemorivagus BASED on its name!) and Amara. I have been to both the carabid and the staphylinid workshops at Dinton Pastures. They are free although they often get fully booked and you don't need to be a member of BENHS to attend.

I am now getting the beetle bug back and I can't believe I am planning on starting invertebrate surveys in a couple of weeks time, as I am now sat at home writing this on a snow day as Woods Mill is closed and the server is down. Now, I think I will work on my presentation to kick off my 'Introduction to Beetles' course...

More mosses I'm afraid. Another day out on reserves with Tom Ottley. This time at Ditchling Beacon and again we get a thumbs up for our management in terms of bryophytes. I added six new mosses to my list and a lichen. This first one wasn't a new one for me but is a chalk-grassland specialist. Fissidens dubius.

We have lots of the attractive moss Hylocomium splendens.

And Scapania aspera is all over the place in small patches. This liverwort is a key species for the site and the only species that makes up the 'southern hepatic mat' that occurs at Ditchling Beacon.

I was finally able to put a name to this golden pleurocarp, it's Campylium protensum.

Last week I was out again with the bryologists Sharon Pilkington and Tom Ottley. This time at Marline Valley, my first real opportunity to walk the length of the ghyll stream there and see some of the rarer mosses and liverworts along its length. Now this is tough going. The valley gets quite steep while fallen trees and 'course woody debris' make progress slow. A lot of recent rainfall made the waders a good decision but slippy clay makes climbing the valley sides very difficult which you have to do often to avoid fallen trees. You really have to want to go down here. However, the first things I have to say is just how stunningly beautiful this place is. What is also great is that it's so untouched. There are no signs of people or management except the inevitable odd bit of litter and in this case the bryophytes are ticking along just fine under natural processes. It's hard to see how this could ever have been different. A real wild oasis just on the edge of Hastings. Waterfalls, sandrocks, base-rich flushes, plunge pools, hard bottomed sections, iron ore seepages. This stretch of stream is really quite something, every turn seems to throw up something new. Wild Garlic is showing its head and the banks are sometimes covered in Greater Woodrush.

This is the nationally scarce Fissidens rivularis growing along rocks on the edge of the stream. 

The rather strange looking moss Hookeria lucens grows all along the steep sides of the ghyll.

There really is no management we can do to enhance the bryophytes here. All we really need to do is monitor the species and keep an eye on any potential pollution events. I saw 12 bryophytes new to my list putting me on 4168 species!

On the 9th January I met up with Sharon Pilkington and Tom Ottley to look at some of the rare bryophytes growing on the sandrocks at Eridge Rocks. It was an interesting day, I managed to see seven species I hadn't seen before (4156) including some quite scarce ones for this region. It was good to talk about the management of these often over-looked plants and to see that we are mostly getting it right too. Tom thought that the rocks were probably looking the best they had done in the last 50 years for this rare assemblage of tiny plants. A few tweaks that we could make include clearing brambles from some of the boulders and removing some of the lower branches from evergreen shrubs to let the dappled sunlight that these plants demand (direct sunlight or complete shade are a sure way to eradicate most of the species).
Here are a few of the species we saw. This first was perhaps the rarest of the mosses, Dicranum scottianum (we only saw three tiny plants) but I was particularly pleased with this shot. It is taken with the lens looking directly up the side of the sandrocks. It was an incredibly dull, overcast day which I think the Coolpix 4500 does well in.
This TINY liverwort is known Scapania umbrosa and was yet another species the bryologists were quite excited by. Nearby, this boulder, with a birch growing from it, was also a hot spot for a few scarce bryophytes.
Including this endearing little acrocarp (did I just say that). Tiny luminous-green sea urchins spring to mind. It's yet another species that can thrive on the sandrock, Campylopus fragilis.
A phrase that kept popping up in the species accounts in the literature for these scarce species was 'hyper oceanic', essentially meaning of a far north-westerly distribution close to the Atlantic. In the Weald, we have many of these species, particularly on the sandrocks, but they are often very rare in the region (where they might be common in the north-west). It must be a specific set of climatic and substrate conditions that are provided here but it is something well worth holding on to. Without the appropriate management at Eridge we would certainly lose these plants to succession as Holly, Yew and Rhododendron cast their dense winter shade over the rocks. This is a great example of monitoring and management working hand in hand with the specialists feeding their knowledge and advice straight to us at the Trust in the field. If we want to hold on to rare and scarce species that have such specific requirements, we cannot rely on a 'one-size fits all' approach to their management and natural processes here would be damaging. Species-assemblage focused management is therefore vital if we are to maintain the more unusual plants and animals at Eridge. Small scale management like this is often referred to as 'gardening' by some conservationists these days. Call it what you like, I see it as exactly what is required to maintain a rare and precious assemblage and that's exactly why I have conservation written through me like a stick of rock!

Here we have Rosie, Becks and Helen sorting out their saltmarsh plants at Titchwell RSPB after seeing the impressive Dune Tiger Beetle Cicindela maritima there (thanks to Mark Gurney for the photos). But why are they there and what are they doing? Nine years ago I was there carrying out an NVC survey and seeing the same exciting species...

...I started my life as an ecologist working for the RSPB out of their headquarters at the Lodge in Sandy working on a network of over 200 reserves in four countries. It was a great five years and I saw some amazing places and species. The RSPB is currently advertising four Ecologist Trainee posts in Bedfordshire and Scotland. There will be a focus on learning fungi or lesser known groups of plants and invertebrates. This training scheme the RSPB is running now, is not quite how I got into ecology, but it will be working within the same team and I would thoroughly recommend this rare opportunity to train as a conservation ecologist. A far rarer job than a consultancy ecologist with a far greater focus on species identification and habitat management and much less on planning and protected species. You would get about to lots of different nature reserves and see many rare and wonderful creatures under the watchful eye of some very competent ecologists! Here are the vacancy details. The closing date is the 14th January 2013 though, so hurry!