The Lyons Share

It is with great sadness that I must announce that I will be leaving Sussex Wildlife Trust by the middle of the month. I am going to become a full-time freelancer which will hopefully also free up more time for other natural history activities, such as becoming more involved with the BAS in Sussex. It's been a fantastic 12 years, I will still be very much involved with the 32 reserves, continuing to do a great deal of recording. Such as yesterday's spontaneous survey...

Shaun Pryor and I headed to Woods Mill, our target; to look for two common linys that I have frequently recorded at Woods Mill but I have not seen this year. Centromerita bicolor and Bathyphantes nigrinus. We saw neither. We did however see a whole load of really good stuff. Here is the full list with those in bold being new to Woods Mill. Some of these species are well known from the site (Such as Drassyllus lutetianus and Ero apahana) so I am making an informed ID on a few immatures here.

We recorded at least 10 new site records and almost as many new 10 km square records. Four of these new species had conservation status, a really significant result to add to our understanding of the site. One of the last things I will do next week is write the biological information for the next Woods Mill plan and these findings will get a mention. So even after I have gone, expect me to keep adding to the understanding of these fantastic reserves in such a way.

The highlight was totally unexpected. A female Monocephalus castaneipes from Hoe Woods. This is the first time I have seen this species, my 50th new spider in 2019 and my 347th spider of 2019.

Almost as unexpected was the species at the top of the page. Panamomops sulcifrons. I have picked this up twice before, both times from chalk quarries. This time it was sieved from litter along the river at Woods Mill. The male is less than 1.5 mm long (smaller than 97% of our spiders) and it's really funny looking.

In the Box hedge right outside my office window, Ballus chalybeius new to the site.

Also there is a colony of Ero aphana which I already knew about.

In the same hedge, some tiny Theridiosoma gemmsosum. Who knew?!

And the first Walckenaeria cuspidata in West Sussex since 1964. That's the one in the middle with unicornis on the left and a female acuminata on the right.

In the valley field, lots of Thanatus striatus.

And a female Palliduphantes pallidus.

And perhaps most surprising, an adult male Pardosa amentata. I haven't seen an adult Pardosa for months so this was quite a surprise.

So Friday the 13th is my last day at the Trust, and hopefully we will wake up to a fantastic red sunrise that day too. We have one month left on the spider challenge. I've closed the gap a little, Matt's now 15 species ahead. Next weekend I am off to the south west for a long weekend of spidering so it's all to play for.

I had a great day today handing over the Butcherlands bird survey to Glenn where we saw three Hawfinches, Peregrine and Red Kite. Then we went on to Burton where we had a look at the work being done there to open up Black Hole. It's looking really good but I didn't want to miss an opportunity to work some of the tussocks in the bog. I apologise in advance for rubbish photos in the white tray but it's a very wet site and wet day, so nice photos were not really achievable.

We recorded 27 species of spider, 16 of which were new to the site. Including Nesticus cellulanus, a spider that I was worried I might not pick up this year. Also new for the year were a couple of other 'bogey spiders' I had not seen until now but really should have. Macrargus rufus and FINALLY Robertus lividus. That puts me on 343 species for the year, just passing over the 50% mark. Now I know I am a few months behind Matt Prince on this but I am very pleased to get to this point.

New to the site today was the creepy Taranuncus setosus. A Nationally Scarce spider I have only ever found in Greater Tussock-sedge or Purple Moor-grass tussocks. It is really rather sinister looking, a big dark leggy liny with 'something of the night' about it. Here is a female on the left. To the right is the disappointing Walckenaeria nudipalpis which lacks a fancy head in the male.

Then Glenn swept the first Hieroglyphic Ladybird I have ever seen in Sussex and the first on a Trust reserve since 1993 (which was actually Graffham Common). This was from an area of rush growing over Sphagnum, a long way from any heathers. Why are these so hard to find? I have now seen them three times, all this year in Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex.

I had a great day at Graffham Common today looking for spiders but the highlight for me was stumbling upon these Drumstick Truffleclubs while I was trying to find somewhere to have my lunch, a new site record. I have wanted to see these for some time, chiefly because of the ridiculous name. They grow out of another fungi, known as False Truffle that we found there some five years ago when they cleared the pines, they were brought to the surface and looked very stone like until you get close. I always assumed that these False Truffles were still there beneath the surface and clearly they are. 

The spiders were pretty amazing today. A total of 43 species in all with five new species for the reserve (amazing for 17th November) but I am going to write a longer piece on the invertebrates of Graffham Common when I can do it justice. It's an incredible site!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend some time in the field with other arachnologists. The shadow in the above photo is Richard Gallon, with Ray Gabriel central and me on the right. We were looking for the enigmatic and extremely rare Thanatus formicinus. A big and impressive spider last seen in Sussex in 1969. There is about as much chance of finding Winnie the Pooh, also from the Ashdown Forest. Yet it did just turn unexpectedly up at Clumber in Nottinghamshire, where I assume it has remained undetected for decades.

We didn't find it. Possibly due to a thick layer of Scotch Mist.

However, we did have an awesome day and recorded something in the region of 45 species of spider. Armed with a trio of suction samplers, we looked like a cross between the Ghostbusters and Last of the Summer Wine. Richard had his petrol driven beast and Ray and I had an electric one a piece. First sample and Richard got a lifer for him and a new one for the year for me. A big female Agroeca brunnea. Only the second time I have seen it and the first female.

I didn't take many more photos on the day, except this Himacerus boops recorded at Duddleswell. It seems to be a genuinely scarce species in Sussex. I do a lot of sampling on heathland and this is the first Sussex record since 2011!

Now back to the spiders. I was able to tease out just what I wrote down from my sampler in the field and make a comparison between a single petrol suction sampler and an electric one. 

This has proved a really interesting exercise. It was fairly standardised, we did about as many samples as each other. Mine certainly took longer to collect and a shorter time to process but I think this is a fairly standardised comparison without getting really science about it. Clearly the petrol gets more but they do get slightly different things when using them together. In this case, it would seem the electric sampler slightly inflates the metric of 'proportion of species with conservation status' that is a valuable tool for assessing a site's quality through its invertebrate assemblage.

EDIT: Totally forgot to say that Sintula corniger is new to East Sussex!

It was such a great day, so good to spend time with other arachnologists, something I rarely do being almost entirely self-taught. A big thanks to Richard and Ray and thank to Richard for the cake and coffee. I have been driving by Duddleswell Tea Rooms for 12 years! I was a bit gutted I didn't take more photos, so on Tuesday I went back up to the forest and did two hours sucking with one electric battery at Old Lodge and got a few goodies. First up I took some photos of species from above.

Here is the tiny Centromerus dilutus which is super common. This is on full zoom. This spider has a maximum length of 1.5 mm when adult! I never take the time to take photos of linys, this was quite a fun exercise but the photos are all poor, the light was awful too.

An adult male Walckneaeria antica.

And also very common, Centromeritus conccinus.

Evarcha arcuata and Cercidia prominens, both adult males at Old Lodge in November. There do not appear to be any records for either in November. It just goes to show it's worth getting out there even on these cold November days.

I did get a few species we didn't find on Saturday. These were.

Ozyptila atomaria

Micrommata virescens

Crustulina guttata

Meioneta mollis (new to site and Nationally Rare)

Tapinopa longidens (first Sussex record since 1968!)

Hahnia helveola (new site record and a lifer)

The last two of these species being new for the year putting me on 336. only 19 behind Matt! Here is a young Micrommata virescens.

Not to be mistaken for a young Tibellus. 

To the naked eye, these and young Thanatus striatus all look quite similar but Micrommata have what I can only describe as 'feet'. Like in this shot. Showing that they are related to huntsman.

And finally the adult male Hahnia helveola, which happens to be the 48th new spider I have had this year and my 7500th species in all. Now I wrote this pretty quickly in just over an hour as I am now going to go to, you've guessed it, Ashdown Forest. It saves me driving to the north of England to look for linys, while still getting good records for Sussex.

I may have got a bit carried away reading up on Denis Villeneuve's 2020 adaptation of Frank Herbert's awesome book Dune yesterday. So when I visited the sand dunes at Camber Sands today to look for spiders, reality and fantasy started to blur. I may have convinced myself just briefly that I was the Universe's super being when this happened...

I can't begin to tell you how excited I was. I have looked for the Nationally Rare Philodromus fallax for about eight years on and of, mainly at this site, but also at sand dunes around the country. I had actually long given up, I was in fact looking for linys today. But I had this weird feeling I needed to try one more tussock before heading round to Camber Sands. Then out it popped from a tussock of dead Marram! Here are some more shots. Much paler than I thought it would be, appeared almost white in the tray.

It was just like the moment Paul Atreides first encountered the Fremen. If only it had blue within blue eyes. Absolutely stoked. I could end the spider listing challenge now and be happy...but I won't. So glad I got a Sussex one. And here was the place, right where it gets trampled by thousands of people, totally different to where I have been looking all this time.

It was a THREE Agroeca today, the only other new spider I had new for the year was Agroeca cuprea. Another Nationally Rare spider that is common at Camber Sands. I saw at least eight today. This is a really nice looking spider. If fallax is a Fremen, this can be Paul Atreides.

In all I recorded 34 species of spider today with lots of species still adults (all those in bold). I end the day on 330 species for the year. Amazed to record as many Nationally Rare species as Nationally Scarce ones. This is a little rushed and not spell-checked.

Last weekend I headed up to Ken Hill for the last visit of 2019, this time to complete the woodland part of the NVC map with plenty of casual recording too. The birds were really good, with the highlight being a trilling Waxwing over the Plain and this really confiding Black Redstart on the barn, guarding the harvest (could this be John Barleycorn? You'll have to read right to the end to know what I'm going on about here). I don't often take many bird photos (this is just shoving my camera against my 30 year old scope). It's great when you get that close to a bird you see new features. Never noticed the pale base to the lower mandible before.

There were also loads of winter thrushes, Bramblings, Golden Plovers, Woodcock and Pink-footed Geese about. But the highlight of the trip was meeting up with my childhood mentor who I had not seen for 15 years! Was really good to see Ewart Gardner again, last time we saw each other we went for the 'Slender-billed Curlew' in Suffolk in 2004. We will definitely not be leaving it for another 15 years, it was so good showing Ewart my bird diaries from 30 years ago which he had never seen before. We spent the day birding around Norfolk at Titchwell and Cley. I picked up four Velvet Scoters at Titchwell and we heard a Bearded Tit at Cley but I think bird of the day was the Black Redstart! It was really important to me to say thank you, for without him I really don't believe I would be doing what I am doing now.

Fungi were really good, with plenty of nice common charismatic species about, such as this Fly Agaric.

Some of the brightest Scarlet Waxcaps I've ever seen! Growing only on one area of the Plain that had been scraped. In time, when this area is well grazed, these sort of fungi should increase in range. They can't compete with the ungrazed tussocks of Wavy Hair-grass though.

Very few inverts around but new for the site was a lovely little Winter Semi-slug. I recorded a little video of it too, showing the mantle coming out and moving around on top of the shell. Such a strange little creature.

I had a quick look in the sand dunes before I cam home and picked up two lifers! The coastal tenebrionid Phaleria cadaverina and the very cool money spider Walckenaeria monoceros (both nationally scarce species). Here is a shot of the money spider under the microscope, it has a quiff!!! Spiders with haircuts, whatever next?