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