Friday, March 1, 2019

End of February update

Fairly pleased to have recorded 216 species by the end of February which is 26% higher than this time last year. If that were to continue I would end up with c1200 species for the year which I would be very happy with. It probably won't but who knows!

Numbers are as follows;

Group
Thorne
Bridport
Group
Thorne
Bridport
Slime moulds
1
1
Hemiptera
2
0
Lichens
16
5
Coleoptera
3
0
Fungi
14
2
Diptera
2
0
Bryophytes
19
7
Hymenoptera
4
3
Plants
74
64
Butterflies
3
1
Molluscs
5
2
Moths
11
0
Annelids
2
0
Insects RSO
0
0
Arachnids
2
0
Fish
1
0
Myriapods
0
0
Amphibia
1
0
Crustacea
8
5
Reptiles
0
0
Springtails
0
0
Birds
41
40
Odonata
0
0
Mammals
5
2
Orthoptera
2
0
Total
216
132

Photos this week.
I was clearing excess vegetation out of the pond when I was very pleased to see a Dytiscus beetle swimming around. This is the first water beetle of any sort I had seen at the site. I managed to net it and took some photos. I remembered that with Dytiscus water beetles a view of the hind coxal processes was important so took an above and below photo. (see below) I assumed the beetle would be Dytiscus marginalis (Great Water Beetle) but maybe the Hind coxal processes are too acute suggesting D. circumcinctus? Any thoughts on this would be welcome.




1 comment:

  1. Ooft. Have to look at the book for that. I associate aquatic beetles with pain (emotional!), though I've had some success this year so far. Good going. Beating last year's result is always a good feeling. Don't foresee me beating my Feb score of this year anytime soon though!

    ReplyDelete