Going very, very small...

Just a quick whizz through the square yesterday, despite the sunshine it was pretty cold (no snow here, I see Mike Mullis was completely snowed in just 30 odd miles south of here!) so I was pleasantly surprised to find a large female Adder sunning itself at the Highest Point on Epsom Common, my second individual of the year up there.

I had a search through a moss-laden rotten log and came up with the tiniest snail I've ever seen, the aptly named Dwarf Snail. Just as small were the leaf spottings on Lesser Celandine which I discovered to be the smut Entyloma ficariae. There's a whole bunch of fungi on Lesser Celandine, I shall be keeping a close lookout for the others. Finally a microscopic search through the erinae of a heavily infested Holm Oak revealed the tiny mites within, Aceria ilicis.

I've a few snails which are causing me problems, plus various tiny Asco's on dead wood which I think I had better just put back and forget about...

339 - Aceria ilicis (a mite on Quercus ilex leaves) - Manor Green Road
340 - Dwarf Snail Punctum pygmaeum - one on a mossy log, Epsom Common
341 - Lesser Celandine Smut Entyloma ficariae - on several plants, Epsom Common

Here's a breakdown of the species list thus far:
Algae - 1
Amphibian - 3
Ant - 1
Beetle - 18 (4 lifers)
Bird - 53
Bug - 5 (1 lifer)
Butterfly - 1
Centipede - 1
Earwig - 1
Fish - 1
Flatworm - 1
Fly - 2 (1 lifer)
Fungi - 32 (9 lifers)
Harvestman - 1
Hydra - 2 (both lifers)
Lichen - 12 (1 lifer)
Liverwort - 8 (2 lifers)
Mammal - 4
Millipede - 3 (1 lifer)
Mite - 3 (2 lifers)
Moss - 21 (5 lifers)
Moth - 8
Plant - 122
Reptile - 1
Shrimp - 1 (a lifer)
Slime Mould - 1
Slug - 9 (7 lifers!)
Snail - 10 (3 lifers)
Spider - 4
Springtail - 2 (both lifers)
Wasp - 2
Woodlouse - 6 (1 lifer)
Worm - 1