Monday, October 29, 2018

Dalgety bay - a touch of frost

Clocks gone back and the car window coated in ice this morning so I guess winter is here. I set a fairly modest target for October which I've now met with a small number of interesting additions. The most odd of these was Neuraphes elongatulus, a Staph that I still can't believe is a Staph! It came crawling across my leaf-litter tray, tiny but hinting that it may be identifiable by its prominent "snout". It was probably only because of a stroke of genius in the family key of Duff Vol. 1 that I got it, since the key features a full line drawing of the beast and I could recognise it straight away. Other than that I've fruitlessly frozen my tail off hoping for passing Whooper Swans (Lapland Buntings, GN Divers ... anything!) on a couple of cold mornings.

On Sunday morning with the man-child delivered to a party near my favourite vismig spot I spent a couple of hours seeing if I could record 100 species there. Turned out I could and I'm now contemplating dual-squaring next year. I may not record the high numbers originally intended on my first patch but it might help with variety and it's closer to my work. Also it gives me a better excuse to do some proper vismigging. I think it's probably how that's going to go down. The patches are sufficiently different that it'll be interesting to see what the overall total would be.





Numbers:
1365 coleoptera Anthobium unicolor A rove beetle
1366 coleoptera Bembidion guttula A ground beetle
1367 millipede Nanogona polydesmoides Eyed Flat-backed Millipede
1368 * fungus Pseudopeziza trifolii A fungus
1369 S coleoptera Neuraphes elongatulus A rove beetle
1370 * diptera Opetia nigra A fly

Numbers to end October:

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct
Algae 6 15 26 28 28 28 28 28 28 28
Lichens 27 31 35 38 38 38 38 38 38 38
Fungi 60 83 86 92 96 100 104 127 152 156
Plants - Vascular 65 77 85 114 151 194 212 220 221 222
Plants - Bryo 46 52 55 61 61 61 61 61 62 62
Mollusc 12 17 27 28 29 29 30 30 30 30
Arachnida 7 12 17 20 32 36 38 40 53 55
Collembola 5 8 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 12
Hemiptera 4 5 7 9 17 25 27 30 49 50
Hymenoptera 3 4 4 14 18 22 23 26 30 30
Coleoptera 8 13 16 23 34 44 47 52 68 83
Diptera 15 24 38 61 141 177 187 201 219 227
Lepidoptera 4 8 14 32 71 112 159 179 198 201
Invert - Other 22 41 54 57 58 61 61 62 69 71
Vert - Birds 54 62 75 82 85 85 88 93 94 95
Vert - Other 3 5 5 7 8 8 10 10 10 10
341 457 554 676 877 1030 1123 1207 1332 1370
116 97 122 201 153 93 84 125 38

4 comments:

  1. Interesting to see the effect that latitude has on different families - your total of 227 diptera is 62% of my total of 368 - given I'm able to devote more time to collecting/keying, it suggests that the totals in the two squares would be pretty similar with the same effort. But your total of 30 species of hymenoptera is just under 20% of my total of 153. I assume that this difference is real and not an artifact? Suggests that hymenoptera really do like warmer climes. Not sure how to interpret the much higher numbers of fungi, algae, lichens and bryophytes in your square, but I suspect that the converse is true, that your wetter colder climate overall is better for this group, even though some of the difference is due to my being rubbish at IDing these species.

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    1. I expect the difference is mostly determined by focus, including my relative hopelessness with hymenoptera, many of which i don't attempt. That being said there are undoubtedly less species of hymenoptera. There are less species of flies, too, but there are more than enough! Any idea of the county total for diptera? Ours is relatively poor at just under 1000 but then I can easily add one per month - I'll tally it up shortly now I think about it.

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    2. No idea about the number of diptera recorded in Norfolk, Ali, but probably quite high I would think given the amount of Broadland fen habitat plus the Brecks and the coastal marshes. There's no easy source for such info as far as I'm aware. Not quite sure how much Norfolk stuff gets onto NBN.

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  2. Good going Ali and also good to see you are planning for next year!

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