Fontinalis pyratica, Greater Water Moss

Hard to imagine how I (and an entire BBS outing!) managed to overlook the abundant aquatic moss on the burn. But they did and I did for many years. Now it's on the list though - at bryophyte species #100. Hoorah!

New Fife Shore Fly

 A shore fly swept this week turned out to be Parydra aquila, apparently new to Fife

As we approach the end of March the invertebrate 1k challenge has thus far produced 77 species new for the reserve, 46 species new to me and 12 species new to the county, which isn't bad at all. It certainly makes the case for it being a worthwhile project.

Away from inverts there are still things other than inverts which are going to pop up. In this case, a sheep poo based trap for dung beetles sprouted fungi this week - the Cowpat Gem, Cheilymenia granulata. A watching eye will be kept on the bait as well as the trap in this case as there aren't many dung based fungi records for the reserve. 

Cowpat Gem

Cassida flaveola, Pale Tortoise Beetle, new to Fife from Cullaloe

 With the weather cool and threatening rain (and windy...) I went to Cullaloe anyway and decided to sieve even more of the grass pile of wonder. Most of what fell into the tray was of the ho-hum, would-have-been-pleased-to-see-you-in-January variety but one little translucent disc caught my eye, thankfully.

I have recorded the larger, greener Cassida rubiginosa on the reserve, and this is quite noticeably a different thing. It likes Caryophlyll ... Carophylea ... probably Red Campion.

2021 Beetle #87

Bee aggressive, bee bee aggressive

Another good lunch break at Cullaloe took me over the 250 with some nice big bees and a new/not-new fly. Fly first, since I need to explain. Hydromya dorsalis was in the list of diptera for the reserve but somehow never made it to the total list, so it was recorded, but not counted. Anyway, now it's both and I get to count it as an addition. This was swept on damp pathside, so not a Willow hit.

An actual addition was Andrena clarkella, a female of which evaded me several times the other day, but which I was able to nail down today. Shocking pictures, sadly. However some other new additions today of nice, easy-to-identify with live pictures.

Bombus hypnorum, Tree Bumblebee

Bombus lapidarius, Red-tailed

Saltus scenicus, where it always in when it's sunny

Kidney-spot Ladybird. Not new, but numerous

Tachina ursina. One of my favourites

So here are today's additions, taking us over the quarter way mark to 1k.

249 380 hymen Bombus pascuorum Common Carder Bee

250 380 hymen Bombus lapidarius   Red-tailed Bumblebee

251 170 spider Saltus scenicus         Zebra spider

252 340 diptera Cheilosia grossa       A hover fly

253 340 diptera Meliscaeva auricollis A hoverfly

254 R 340 diptera Hydromya dorsalis     A Snail-killing Fly

255 R 380 hymen Andrena clarkella       Clarke's Mining Bee

256 340 diptera Anatopynia plumipes  A non-biting midge

257 370 butterfly Aglais urticae          Small Tortoiseshell

Salix in Wonderland

I spent a happy lunchtime getting a crick in my neck to look at Salix catkins yesterday, mostly trying to avoid the 100s of honey bees that I think have something to do with the reserve's neighbour.

It seemed to take forever this year to have any open catkins but finally "project tussock" has been overtaken by "project catkin". Yesterday a reasonable collection of flies was made, with many more duplicates not taken or released after ID. Papilio binoculars help no end in identifying target beasts and body-swerving the others.

All from Salix so far have been:

Scathophagidae: Scathophaga stercoraria

Calliphoridae: Calliphora vicina 

Polleniidae: Pellenia rudis

Syrphidae: Melangyna lasiophthalma, Melangyna quadromaculata, Eristalis pertinax

Muscidae: Eudasyphora cyanella, Muscina levida, Phaonia tuguriorum

Anthomyiidae: Egle ciliata.

Tahcinidae: Tachina ursina

I've probably forgotten some (and no mention of bees, beetles, moths). Anyway, also first butterflies were two hyperactive Peacocks, one of which took a shine to the kite net while I was checking a specimen

And swept from grass was one of my faves - Stenocranus minutus

I thought I might reach the 250 mark last night, but it wasn't to be. With only two species required it will almost certainly be today.

Moffs plus

 Finally the moth challenge got some air under its wings and rose off the ground. I set the actinic heath trap up last night and then had a look at the salix catkins, which were happily being feasted on by a usual early spring collection of Common Quaker, Hebrew Character and Satellite moths, An Agonopterix heracliana was netted on the way along the path. This morning the trap held three of my target species - Yellow Horned. The moth total is now up to a monster 8 species. That's nearly double figures!

Yesterday was good during the day, too, with sunny tree trunks hosting Kidney-spot Ladybird and the same Salix (only one's really in flower, accessibly anyway) hosted Melangyna quadrimaculata.

Kidney-spot

M.quadrimaculata

Yearlist stands at 240 species of inverts now. The full list is on the yearlist tab - here

Latest category counts

On the realisation of 300 dipteran species, it's a good time to post the latest breakdown by category. In addition to a 300 landmark for flies this record also makes the number of additions this year (77) equal to the whole of that for 2020.

Class	Count
alga	1
Protist other	0
slime mould	5
lichen	64
fungus	313
liverwort	16
moss	83
flowering plant	307
conifer	2
fern	11
cnidarian	0
mollusc	31
bryozoan	0
annelid	7
flatworm	1
harvestman	11
pseudoscorpion	1
spider	86
gall mite	7
tick	1
millipede	13
centipede	5
crustacean	7
collembola	13
bristletail	0
odonata	7
dermaptera	1
orthoptera	1
hemiptera	81
coleoptera	185
diptera	300
lep-moth	384
lep-butterfly	18
hymenoptera	61
insect-other	36
tunicate	0
echinoderm	0
invert-other	0
fish	5
reptile	1
amphibian	3
bird	141
mammal	16
	2225

Retro fly addition makes 300

While searching for something completely unrelated I found a reference to two recordings of Campichoeta obscuripennis in the 2018 Dipterists Digest. I was sure I had recorded it, too, but it wasn't on my reserve species list. So it was recorded in 2017, 2018 and 2020. When I say "recorded", I see no actual record in the public sphere of the first two. Such is the battle of fly recording.

Here's a pic of the one I had in 2020

That brings the Cullaloe total for Diptera to a semi-respectable 300 species. Since this is already old and overlooked, the recent anthomyiid Lasiomma seminitidum would have been species 300.

Dipterists Digest link:

https://www.dipterists.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/Dipterists%20Digest%202018%20volume%2025%20part%202.pdf

What stinks and sounds like a bell?

Dung!

An attempt to prod around some sheep poo yesterday turned up numbers of Aphodius sphacelatus, one of which was retrieved from a bucket of water before the rest emerged from gathered poo. Only other thing I had was a small staph, as yet undetermined. And this Tachyporus, which I shamefully forgot because I potted it in the field.

2021 Beetle #82 - Aphodius sphacelatus

2021 Beetle #83 - Tachyporus nitidulus

male, gendetted

Unexpected new mollusc - Cornu aspersum

This morning, while on a brief trip to pick up something that was left for me, I turned a rock and photographed the routine Cornu aspersum, that I expected to find along the walls of the reserve.

The surprise element of this is that when I came to copy the species line from the "complete list" tab of my spreadsheet to the "2021 list" tab it turned out it didn't exist! So Cornu aspersum is a new mollusc, the second new snail of the year.

Since I'm in mollusc world, here's another recent 2021 addition, and one of my favourite land molluscs - Hedgehog Slug.

Beetle #81

Another win for the grass pile. New to me and the reserve. With the reserve total on 185 we're slowly creeping towards a not-horrible 200. The aim, though is to be about 100 north of that by end of play. 48 of the existing tally is already Staphylinidae.

2021 Beetle #81 - Hygrohypnus angustatus

80 beetles and Lithocharis nigriceps new to me/reserve/county

2021 Beetle #79 - Pterostichus madidus

not photographed because I thought I surely must have already recorded it!

2021 Beetle #80 - Lithocharis nigriceps

As per the species account in the book - - in a (the) pile of grass cuttings

Another day, another beetle (oh, and a wasp)

First the wasp. Again, from the magical tussocks came this lovely female brachypterous wasp, which was kindly identified on the Icheumonidae facebook page as Aptesis nigrocincta. Very pretty little thing it is, too. It may or may not be new to Scotland. The status of such things is "data deficient". But it's certainly new to me, and to Cullaloe, and almost certainly Fife. It's actually quite big for a wingless wasp. It parasitises a sawfly which hasn't been recorded either, so that's an interesting one to look out for. Neither has Scottish dots on NBN.

The beetle is somewhat more routine, but still new for Cullaloe. Believe it or not, it did NOT come from a tussock, but rather from under a stone in the woodland. One thing Cullaloe lacks, really, is turnable stones, so if I find one I always turn it. When I say "find", it's not as if I don't know where they all are! Most of the time I can name what's going to be underneath them (spoiler - it's one of several Pterostichus). The Leistus is beetle species #184. Pretty pleased with that, since we started the year with only 150.

2021 Beetle #78 - Leistus fulvibarbis

Beetle additions - 76 & 77

Still from the 2nd, a Catops from fish-baited pitfall trap and another staph from the Land O' Tussocks. The Philonthus is known from here according to my field guide marginal notes, but wasn't actually on the list. There were no Catops on the list, despite discovering a new species of fungus for Scotland on an unidentified one a couple of years back!

2021 Beetle #76 - Catops tristis 

2021 Beetle #77 - Philonthus laminatus

Big and shiny

The Overwhelming

As spring has sprung the Time of Overwhelming draws ever nearer, and there's no doubt I'm flirting dangerously with it. This morning I spent a happy lunchbreak at Land O' Tussocks, which was once known as "The Orchid Meadow" and is now a sea of Deschampsia and Juncus tussocks, intermittently mown by the occasional presence of a couple of sheep. It has a cracking damp/wet spot in the middle which is bordered by Water Avens and it holds Marsh Thistle, Marsh Willowherb, Big Yellow Trefoil (yeah, I'm sure that's what it's called...) and other such wet-bit plants. Also, in its season, shedloads of Tormentil and nice late season Scabious - if the sheep haven't eaten it. For a very fairly tedious-looking rectangle of grassland there's a lot going on.

Anyway, I digress. I carved up three of the 1000 tussocks today and had three new-for-year and new-for-reserve species, two of which were new-for-me. Huzzah! And I've only started on the minor collection I made. To be fair, I obviously started on what looked the most easy/juicy. The rest will probably add zilch.

One of the nice things which I think I've only seen tussocking, or maybe I also swept it before, is the little red ladybird .

2021 Beetle #73 - Coccidula rufa

More exciting, and at first I lost my bearings on this, was this little, diggy (under)ground beetle. I regret this pic doesn't show its fossorial forelegs. I had been looking forward to seeing Clivina fossor, and even though I clocked its obvious redness in the field (not as apparent here) I only latterly realised that meant it wasn't C.fossor at all, but in fact, C.collaris.

2021 Beetle #74 - Clivina collaris

Third new beetle for the day, and 2nd new beetle for me, was an unexpected click beetle - 

2021 Beetle #75 - Hypnoidus riparius

The latter was species #201 for the year, with species #200 taken by a long-awaited addition - the 35th fly - Pteremis fenestralis. I think I had this before but I never actually caught one so I never added it to the list.

 

2021 Fly #35 - Pteremis fenestralis

Mooned by a lesser dung fly

I will not, unless I'm prevented from getting to the reserve tomorrow, get through the remaining species before I collect even more. Which means tomorrow I will start the day with material in hand. AND I saw the first peeping flowers of Willow breaking out today. I have one baited bottle trap and two baited pitfalls. 

It's about to get real.

Spring

 Made the best use of an appointment at the recycle centre to make a small detour to Cullaloe. A good sunny morning is a fine time to observe flies on all the south-facing wood the entrance has to offer.

Long wooden fence - a big draw when in full sun

Sinkhole protector (?). Also good

Even a small signboard.

Wood warms up nicely and makes a fine place for basking in sunshine. Soon these surfaces will be covered with Salix-loving anthomyiids, but for the time being it looks like it's all Muscidae and Calliphoridae. Pollenias were out in force and at least one Lucilia. There may or may not be an anthomyiid. I'll have to wait and see what else there is. It took me ten minutes to make a small collection but there is new stuff there no doubt, and all brachyceran. (Brachycera is the Latin for "proper fly").

I also re-jigged a baited pitfall trap, moving the bait to above the trap wrapped in an old sock. This has shown promise for allowing smell out while stopping insects getting gunky. Luckily, for some reason (!), I happen to have a large box of PPE gloves. Hopefully some chancer mammal won't pinch the bait, as happened in another trap (rotting fish for mammal poo - is that a fair swap? at least I didn't kill the mammal)

Bottle trapping

So the first bottle trap experiment failed due to hard weather, but finally last week I was able to get a robust trap with fish bait going. Last night I emptied said trap and it had a predictable set of inmates. I should have a photo of the trap but when I set it I'd forgotten my phone/camera. Doh! I swapped out the "capture chamber" so I can photo it again anyway.

Most obvious in the trap was Calliphora vicina, finally. This may have appeared earlier had I set the trap nearer to the cottages end of the reserve, but it's an inevitable species both in bait traps and on sunny surfaces. Then there was one (only one?!) Dryomyza. Usualy they show up early in numbers, but the trap wasn't out that long and not in its usual place. A couple of Heleomyzidae were Tephrochlaena oraria and Heteromyza commixta. The rest of group was made up of a small collection of Drosophila subobscura. All common species on the reserve, but nice to get the dipteran ball rolling a bit. Surprisingly absent was Sylvicola cintus, which I had in 10s if not 100s last year, but maybe that's specific to location. The trap was previously over a wet seepage in a different part of the reserve. Maybe a second trap's required.

This week will hopefully see me swishing a kite net at Willows and the game will be seriously on. As usual, I expect my capabilities will be over-run over the space of about 48 hours. Current dipteran tally - 32 species.

Calliphora vicina

Heteromyza commixta

Dryomyza flaveola

Drosophila subobscura

End of February - 194 invertebrates (195, but really, that's it... honest)

 Amazingly, there are more beetles every day it seems. 

2021 beetle #69 - Helophorus aequalis, pond-dipped filter beds

2021 Beetle #70 - Bolitobius castaneus, Deschampsia tussock in orchid meadow/sheep enclosure/Deschampsia jungle.

2021 Beetle, #71. Orange Ladybird. Deschampsia tussock, no pic

In 2019, when I tried to record over 1k species on the reserve (final total, October, 1146), I recorded 606 species of invertebrates. End of Feb in 2019 I had 174 invert spp., which wasn't bad at all. This year, end 28th February, I've recorded 194. Somehow I managed to only record 99 species of beetle in the whole of 2019. I suspect the total will be higher this year.

It must have been a warmer start to the year as I had 13 moth species rather than my current 2 and some were on open Willow catkins. There aren't any open Willow catkins right now (I think). I was running the moth trap very regularly though, leaving it in situ and only re-charging the battery. I also had way more molluscs (20, versus 7) by end of Feb 2019. That's an area that needs addressing, for sure.

Moth #2 (!) - Dotted Border

A late run to pick up a carrion-baited bottle trap picked up another 4 species (5, if you count one that's not identified yet - which turned out to be Drosophila subobscura in a shock return to the study).

Tephrochlaena oraria, a heleomyzid