New fungus - Exidia, thuretiana - White Brain

A nice new fungus at lunchtime today in the rain. This year I will be trying to resist keeping a year list, which should be easy since I haven't started one. I will list only additions along with the groups I have chosen to specifically zoom in on - fungi, flies, spiders and epiphytes. And ... no! no and! Well, let's see

Here it is - the white brain

2015 roundup

So the year finished on 775 species with over 200 species added to the reserve catalgoue. A surprise addition while looking for epiphytic lichens in the willows was the 94th bryophyte species - Orthotrichum Lyellii

The total breakdown for 2015 was as follows:

Taxon Group	Number of Records	Number of Taxa
acarine (Acari)	1	1
amphibian	4	3
bird	88	79
centipede	2	2
conifer	2	2
crustacean	5	4
false scorpion (Pseudoscorpiones)	3	1
fern	5	5
flowering plant	185	158
fungus	133	102
harvestman (Opiliones)	2	2
horsetail	2	2
insect - alderfly (Megaloptera)	2	2
insect - beetle (Coleoptera)	29	23
insect - butterfly	25	10
insect - dragonfly (Odonata)	2	2
insect - earwig (Dermaptera)	1	1
insect - hymenopteran	10	7
insect - lacewing (Neuroptera)	1	1
insect - moth	154	119
insect - orthopteran	1	1
insect - scorpion fly (Mecoptera)	1	1
insect - stonefly (Plecoptera)	2	1
insect - true bug (Hemiptera)	8	8
insect - true fly (Diptera)	242	84
lichen	38	32
liverwort	16	12
millipede	5	4
mollusc	4	3
moss	77	60
spider (Araneae)	53	38
springtail (Collembola)	2	2
terrestrial mammal	3	3

Bee book updates and corrections

In the hopes that this will help me find it later, corrections to the bee field guide

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@N07/collections/72157660455505269/

More fun with lichens

A veritable miniature garden of lichens on a fallen twig. Xanthoria parietina (yellow), Physcia adscendens (with hairs) and Lecanora chlarotera (tan discs)

A big day in the east end

A trip out to the eastern leg of the reserve proved a big success at the weekend, with a particular focus on lichens. I started out by dropping into the area north of the paddock to check a hawthorn I knew had a lot of lichen. My intention was to record Platismatia glauca which I was sure must be there. On the same tree I also bumped into Pseudevernia furfuracea.

Phlebia radiata

Pseudevernia with its dark underside

The lettucy-looking Platismatia

Further along the eastern leg I checked out the Phlebia radiata just because it's so nice, but also found Diatrype disciformis there which I hadn't recorded before. As I walked along I looked down into the ditch on the right to see a Woodcock standing in the shallow water. It eyeballed me for a few seconds before deciding to make a break for it. A few seconds longer than I normally see them for!

My intention now was to check the wall for lichens, but what I wasn't expecting was a new fern and a new moss at the same spot. I barely covered a few feet of wall and also had some nice unrecorded lichens there.

Candelariella sp.

Asplenium ruta-muraria and Encalypta streptocarpa

Caloplaca holocarpa

Verrucaria nigrescens

Verrucaria nigrescens

On the way back I took some photos of a tree-trunk lichen which turned out to be Lecanora expallens. It is in an extensive patch but some small outliers allow the grey prothallus and mint green sorediate centres to be more apparent:

All in all a big day with several new lichen species addded plus one bonus fern and one bonus moss.

Fuscidea lightfootii

This badly photographed coloniser of small branches is the latest addition to the fledgling lichen list of Cullaloe. Target for the year was 25 so only a couple more to go and I will feel like we're starting to get somewhere

Early December fungal additions

So the new records keep trickling in with a nice collection of fungi on site today. Of note was this Hygophorus hypothejus - "Herald of Winter" which I recorded exactly two years ago to the day.

One new one for the reserve list was the delightful "Lemon Disco" Bisporella citrina

 

A small selection of other fungi still out and about in early December:

Mycena sp.

To be determined

Hemimycena tortuosa

  

In addition to the fungal records there was also a large piece of Scots Pine which has joined us at ground level, no doubt soon to be overtaken by Stereum sanguinolentum and other Pinus lovers.