Monday, March 4, 2013

Guernsey

Not had any major expeditions around the square during the last week or so, but noticed a few things during the odd wander to the shops etc. I have been mainly identifying common things in the garden as I have bought a couple of cheaper books on a couple of groups, and also practising with my new compound microscope. Well, not really "mine" as it is the local natural history group's (La Societe) which they have given me to use because apparently, apart from moths, butts and drags, I am the only person looking at 'small stuff' on the island now.

Highlight was definitely the Barn Owl which I saw from the car on the western flank of the square one evening. I returned two nights later and, even though it was quite dark, had great views of it hovering 10 yards away. I have lived here almost 10 years and this is the first time I've ever seen one along my road.

215 - False Black Widow Spider
216 - Parophonus maculicornis (beetle)
217 - Bracken Map Fungus
218 - Barn Owl
219 - Springy Turf-moss
220 - Lithobius forficatus (centipede)
221 - Common Pill Woodlouse
222 - Silky Wall Feather-moss
223 - White Rust Fungus (A. candida)
224 - Schrenkensteinia festaliella
225 - Common Pygmy Woodlouse
226 - Mathonica silvestris (spider)
227 - Rat (invoking the recently dead rule - squished in the road!)
228 - Thale Cress
229 - Danish Scurvygrass
230 - Spurge Rust Fungus
231 - Hawthorn Shieldbug
232 - Nettle Ground Bug

I have found the little tips people have given out on here, and on Facebook, very useful, especially for things like these tiny fungi which I wouldn't have even spotted. So keep them up guys.


Silverfish in the kitchen

Yellow-v Moth on the biscuit tin. A speciality of the islands and common inside our house, also occurs on Scilly.

Schrenkensteinia festaliella on my sleeve - probably just emerged from the tiny bramble in the corner of the garden.

I attempted my first spider dissection and pulled out these female bits from a 'house spider' type thing. I think, looking at the internet, that this must be Malthonica silvestris due to its highly looped and curved vulva (wha-hey!)


6 comments:

  1. That's enough of your filth young man. Curved vulva, honestly. Mind you, if you knew what I'd been up to tonight...

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  2. which false widow? which silverfish?

    Im just narked youve done a better job with epigyne dissection than I have so far!

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  3. Ha! [just deleted something far far far too rude to be published on such a high-brow website...]

    Although this is the first spider, I am used to dissecting moths.

    False Black Widow was S.grossa.

    Only one type of Silverfish isn't it?

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  4. Lol..

    Ah.. I'm useless at dissecting moths, absolutely destroyed a macro, whilst Bob Heckford looked on. I'm not sure he's forgiven me, thankfully it wasn't a micro.

    I was curious as to which false widow you had, both s.nobilis and s.grossa are common in Devon, the latter more so than the former, I assumed you'd have a good mix of both in the Channels Islands.

    As for the silverfish, It look's like lepisma saccharina, assuming you've ruled out firebrat thermobia domestica (which would normally have longer antennae and cerci). There are other synanthropic species that are predicted to arrive in the UK (also called silverfish) - Ctenolepisma sp. for example, and the continent has other lepisma sp which very little is known about, check out the distribution of lepisma baetica for example at Fauna Europea.

    With thysanura and archeognatha its a bit like the 'map' scene in Blackadder II 'potato'...

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  5. Yes, both grossa and nobilis appear to be common here according to the list but this one's bits matched the former better. And Silverfish is the only one of that type of creature recorded here so far.

    Because of our unusual position here, the Channel Islands have always been rather well-studied by local and visiting naturalists, and so I suspect our lists are pretty accurate. But of course, new things are arriving all the time so still have to be open-minded.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, both grossa and nobilis appear to be common here according to the list but this one's bits matched the former better. And Silverfish is the only one of that type of creature recorded here so far.

    Because of our unusual position here, the Channel Islands have always been rather well-studied by local and visiting naturalists, and so I suspect our lists are pretty accurate. But of course, new things are arriving all the time so still have to be open-minded.

    ReplyDelete