Cullaloe LNR, Fife - Slug,worm, worm,slug. Jus' like that

A nice weekend to start March, and new species for the reserve is now 121. Most has been sort of routine, though the fantastic Worm Slug was a nice new addition to both me and the reserve.

One of my "most wanted", believe it or not - Worm Slug

Octolasion lacteum, 4th earthworm

Category	Jan	Feb	Mar
alga	1	1	1
Protist other	0	0	0
slime mould	0	1	1
lichen	33	37	38
fungus	67	93	96
liverwort	9	9	9
moss	44	45	46
flowering plant	93	95	95
conifer	2	2	2
fern	4	4	4
cnidarian	0	0	0
mollusc	11	20	21
bryozoan	0	0	0
annelid	2	3	4
flatworm	0	1	1
harvestman	3	5	5
pseudoscorpion	1	1	1
spider	19	24	24
gall mite	0	0	0
tick	0	1	1
millipede	2	5	5
centipede	2	2	2
crustacean	4	5	5
collembola	6	7	7
bristletail	0	0	0
odonata	0	0	0
dermaptera	1	1	1
orthoptera	0	0	0
hemiptera	5	9	9
coleoptera	30	47	50
diptera	4	19	23
lep-moth	4	13	13
lep-butterfly	0	1	1
hymenoptera	4	8	8
insect-other	1	3	3
tunicate	0	0	0
echinoderm	0	0	0
invert-other	0	0	0
fish	0	0	0
reptile	0	0	0
amphibian	1	2	2
bird	48	56	58
mammal	1	1	3
Total:	402	521	539

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.

Cullaloe LNR, Fife - a fast 500

A fungus romp on Saturday morning with gathering of other things encountered on the way (obviously) followed by a sunny day and  a free pass to roam on Sunday meant the 500 was secured and then some. The species new to the reserve also sailed over 100. The list can be seen here - 2019 new spp.

I'll be having a look at the fastest 1000 with an aim to beating that, but I still think it's a long stretch from there to reaching Tim's outrageous 2018 total. The number of species per day required is just out of my reach I think. That'll have to wait for retirement. It's not that I can't catch/gather enough material - I'm sure I can. I think I just have no way of identifying them at that rate. I say this knowing full well that I might be spending December poring over pinned Ichneumonidae!

I know everybody loves a good pyrenomycete so here's the charming Bertia moriformis in all its glory.

Also worth mentioning was the occurrence of #patchgold Whooper Swans which flew over on Saturday morning

Category	Jan	Feb
alga	1	1
Protist other	0	0
slime mould	0	0
lichen	33	37
fungus	67	93
liverwort	9	9
moss	44	45
flowering plant	93	95
conifer	2	2
fern	4	4
cnidarian	0	0
mollusc	11	20
bryozoan	0	0
annelid	2	3
flatworm	0	1
harvestman	3	5
pseudoscorpion	1	1
spider	19	23
gall mite	0	0
tick	0	1
millipede	2	5
centipede	2	2
crustacean	4	5
collembola	6	6
bristletail	0	0
odonata	0	0
dermaptera	1	1
orthoptera	0	0
hemiptera	5	9
coleoptera	30	46
diptera	4	14
lep-moth	4	10
lep-butterfly	0	1
hymenoptera	4	7
insect-other	1	1
tunicate	0	0
echinoderm	0	0
invert-other	0	0
fish	0	0
reptile	0	0
amphibian	1	2
bird	48	55
mammal	1	1
	402	505

Bridport & Thorne Week 8

A few more added but the week's highlight - a Slender Groundhopper - got away before I could photograph it. So this weeks photo is another moth; Common Quaker.

The numbers for each site are as follows;

Group	Thorne	Bridport	Group	Thorne	Bridport
Slime moulds	1	1	Hemiptera	1	0
Lichens	16	5	Coleoptera	3	0
Fungi	14	2	Diptera	2	0
Bryophytes	19	7	Hymenoptera	3	3
Plants	73	64	Butterflies	2	1
Molluscs	5	2	Moths	8	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	39	40
Odonata	0	0	Mammals	4	2
Orthoptera	2	0	Total	206	132

Cullaloe, Fife - this and that

A slow February, as predicted, with a lot of winter stuff recorded in January. Inverts are picking up and a couple of traps have been placed to good effect with some water beetles and a few moths starting to trickle in.

The bottle trap for flies is part of a study for Calliphoridae, though I haven't had any yet. So far I've had about 40 Sylvicola fenestralis cinctus and some (what I think are) Dryomyzidae. In any event acalypterate flies which I have no firm ID for (edit: they were Dryomyza flaveola)

Traps

Satellite

Galerucella lineola

Metzneria snuggled up in Knapweed (thanks, Ben Smart!)

One of the benefits of living near Edinburgh, with RBG and the National Museum of Scotland close at hand is being able to call on high quality assistance. This Ichneumon would almost certainly have been given either no name or the wrong name by me (although I did get the other one right - yay!). 500 is the target for Feb, although I have now passed last year's February total of 457. Not that far ahead, really.

Numbers:

	Jan	Feb
Algae	1	1
Lichens	33	37
Fungi	67	76
Vascular	99	101
Bryophytes	53	54
Mollusc	11	14
Arachnida	23	28
Collembola	6	6
Hemiptera	5	8
Hymenoptera	4	5
Coleoptera	30	40
Diptera	4	8
Lepidoptera	4	8
Invert - Other	12	16
Vert - Birds	48	54
Vert - Other	2	2
Total	402	458

Back on track

Having missed the wintry spell while away I returned to work to find almost Spring like conditions. Good! A few more species added including my second butterfly - a Red Admiral - of the year.

A couple of moths also added including Hebrew Character (Photo below)

The numbers are as shown below,

Group	Thorne	Bridport	Group	Thorne	Bridport
Slime moulds	1	1	Hemiptera	1	0
Lichens	16	5	Coleoptera	3	0
Fungi	14	2	Diptera	2	0
Bryophytes	19	7	Hymenoptera	3	2
Plants	73	44	Butterflies	2	0
Molluscs	5	2	Moths	7	0
Annelids	2	0	Insects RSO	0	0
Arachnids	2	0	Fish	1	0
Myriapods	0	0	Amphibia	0	0
Crustacea	8	5	Reptiles	0	0
Springtails	0	0	Birds	38	36
Odonata	0	0	Mammals	4	2
Orthoptera	1	0	Total	202	106