Monday, April 2, 2018

Horsey - first three months update

Yet again it's wet and cool and sodden as I write this. Seems never-ending at the moment. I've been quite pleased with the species recorded in the first three months given that the weather has been so bad, especially in late February and the whole of March.

A brief summary along the lines of Seth:

Algae, fungi, lichens, bryophytes, cnidarians, molluscs, worms, myriapods, crustaceans, springtails, other small things - these groups don't really rock my boat, and I don't know much about them - 48 species recorded so far, but probably won't increase that much.

Vascular plants - 102 species recorded, be lucky to get to 200, not a very rich square and can't get to the more interesting areas.

Arachnids - 38 species, all from my garden, not sure how many extra are in the wider area, but could get to 75?

Odonata/Orthopteriods - only one so far, but could possibly get to 25-30.

Hemiptera - 21 so far, but possibly another 100 if I put my mind to it.

Hymenoptera - 10 so far, but if I push with bees, wasps (including some ichneumonids) and sawflies I think an extra 100 (or even 150?) might be possible.

Coleoptera - 87 so far (from my garden). If it's a good season for migrating/dispersing beetles coming to light, it's not impossible that I could get another 200 species, but could be considerably less.

Diptera - 60 species so far. This group is a bit of an unknown quantity as it's only over the past 6 months that I've become confident about some of the groups, so I should get far more this year than previous years. I've seen 330 species in the square since I moved here, but it's likely that this will increase significantly during the year. Perhaps another 200-300 species?

Butterfles/Moths - 24 moths so far. Should get 20+ butterflies. Moths more difficult to predict. A bad year might be 350 species, a good year 450 species. I'm away for nearly half of June, which is not a good move and could miss lots of species, especially if it's warm whilst I'm away.

Birds - 76 species so far. Should get 120+ species I would think.

Mammals - 10 species so far, should see a few more.

New stuff in the last few days:

462 Anagallis arvensis Vascular Plants Scarlet Pimpernel 30/03/2018
463 Picris echioides Vascular Plants Bristly Oxtongue 30/03/2018
464 Stachys sylvatica Vascular Plants Hedge Woundwort 30/03/2018
465 Veronica filiformis Vascular Plants Slender Speedwell 30/03/2018
466 Auricularia auricula-judae Fungi Jelly Ear 30/03/2018
467 Ceratocapnos claviculata Vascular Plants Climbing Corydalis 30/03/2018
468 Saxicola torquatus Birds Stonechat 30/03/2018
469 Symphytum grandiflorum Vascular Plants Creeping Comfrey 30/03/2018
470 Puccinia phragmitis Fungi A rust fungus 30/03/2018
471 Platyderus depressus Coleoptera Carabidae 30/03/2018
472 Copromyza nigrina Diptera Sphaeroceridae 30/03/2018
473 Sorex araneus Mammals Common Shrew 31/03/2018
474 Branta canadensis Birds Canada Goose 01/04/2018
475 Phylloscopus collybita Birds Chiffchaff 01/04/2018
476 Nomada fabriciana Hymenoptera Fabricius' Nomad Bee 01/04/2018
477 Forficula auricularia Orthopteroids Common Earwig 01/04/2018

2 comments:

  1. So conservatively you expect 1500 this year. Wow! Yeah, probably best you just ignore all those "algae, fungi, lichens, bryophytes, cnidarians, molluscs, worms, myriapods, crustaceans, springtails, other small things" to give the rest of us a fighting chance of seeing at least half of what you do! :D

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  2. Your odonata/orthoptera and butterfly projections. Just wow ... I'll get maybe a grasshopper with an outside chance of one dragonfly. If I hit 200 moth species I'll call that a good year!

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