I failed to get to 1000 species for Pan-species listing before I went on holiday but I managed to bust through in August and have added some fantastic bits and pieces since then. I currently find myself on 1038 species and here are a few of my favourites.
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| Megachile centuncularis |
Segestria florentina - I managed to find loads of these and their more diminutive brethren
S.senoculata in the brickwork around Bridgwater.
S.florentina is a large reclusive spider which lives in a tube web and when it is illuminated its fangs glow neon green.
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| Segestria florentina |
I also had a ramble out onto the Quantocks looking for
Chalkhill Blues. It was a bit windy but I found a rather ratty male. Better than these though were the
Hornet Robberflies. These were predating grasshoppers and Hornets and are the largest species of diptera in the UK.
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| Hornet Robberfly |
Whilst seawatching at Barmston I managed to add a new fish as some of the small cobbles close in were fishing for
Mackerel. I may have seen these in the past but hadnt remembered any specific incidences.
There have been three new orthoptera additions since my holiday. Both
Short-winged and
Long-winged Coneheads were picked up at Hatch Hill in Somerset along with plenty of
Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers.
I managed to add two conopid flies,
Conops quadrifasciatus and
C. ceriaeformis which were awesome looking beasties which I initially mistook to be hoverflies. On the beetle front
11-spot Ladybird came from coastal dunes in Cumbria whilst a
Churchyard Beetle was found on a manor house wall along with
Amaurobius ferox and a still to be identified centipede with 60 pairs of legs. A third beetle,
Anthocomus rufus was on Hogweed at Westhay Moor in Somerset.
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| Anthocomus rufus |
A trio of moths made up the remainder of the Lepidoptera additions with
June Highflyer,
Latticed Heath and belatedly
Chestnut Leaf Miner noted. Spiderwise it was a profitable time as aside from the three species I have already mentioned a couple of Crab Spiders,
Misumena vatia and
Xysticus cristatus. Finally a massive money spider,
Linyphia triangularis was discovered in a limestone quarry in Cumbria. I also finally managed to pin down one of the mining bees to species with
Megachile centuncularis.
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| July Highflyer |
The final animalia addition is
Compass Jellyfish as I watched a number of jellies being washed up on the spring tides in Cumbria. A single fungi addition will hopefully be joined by many more over the next couple of months. I thought I'd found Amethyst Deceiver but it turns out it was
Mycena pura. Purple anyway...
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| Mycena pura |
I know I said this last time but the plants will follow in a later post...
