Phase II

 With the weather turning cold again it was time to contemplate moving to phase II - trapping, There's so much water about that bottle trapping the water edge for aquatics definitely ain't happening. That will have to wait, as will any kind of pitfall trapping, except maybe in some higher and more sheltered areas.

Bottle-trapping with bait is definitely a decent way to get hold of a few January flies, though. I expect Calliphora vicina, Calliphora vomitoria, Dryomyza flaveola, Sylvicola cinctus and maybe some heleomyzids will make their way into here shortly.

Can you smell what it is, yet?

It's sea bass. And v.stinky!

A bit of tussocking with frozen fingers produced beetle #43 of the year - Crepidodera fulvicornis, a very common beetle on the willows. Phratora laticollis, another leaf beetle, was added yesterday, from a collection two days ago. If I could make it to 50 that would be 1/3rd of the total beetle list at 1st January!

End of the century

 Last night after posting I was able to determine that a dipteran larva in Centaurea nigra was, in fact, the picture-winged fly Urophora jaceana (four openings to the anterior spiracles). 

This morning a nice, small Stenus with a very triangular abdomen keyed out to be Stenus picipennis, which fortunately matched lots of pictures of the same online as it's another new Stenus for the reserve. One of my favourite genera of beetles and I could see from habitus that it was a species I didn't know.

Stenus picipennis

Lunchtime, then, was a mission to nab one more species and I set out to find Metzneria larvae in Knapweed. Metzneria proved hard to find but I did find a hiding Larioides cornutus in one flower head, which was the 100th species for 2021. I never did find Metzneria. There were a lot of tephritids, though, and I'll do a feature on Centauria nigra shortly. When a Urophora, or two, are in a flower head you know immediately because the head is hard as a hazelnut. A sideways squeeze will tell you you have flies.

Anyway, this is the spider and the breakdown of inverts which made up the "First 100" club.

Larioides cornutus

Category	Count
mollusc	4
annelid	1
harvestman	4
pseudoscorpion	1
spider	19
tick	1
millipede	3
crustacean	3
collembola	4
hemiptera	7
coleoptera	39
diptera	13
insect-other	1

The whole list for 2021 invertebrate list can be seen by clicking the tab. Remarkably in those 100 species 28 of them have been new to the reserve, including 10 new beetles, 8 new flies and 5 new bugs. That I was able to add four species for spiders has been a big surprise. Whereas the other categories are still quite poorly represented I really expected spider additions to be the occasional one or two a year by now. 

Five (three...) to go

The century beckons, but not quite there yet. Still, some nice new additions to the 2021 list and to the reserve.

A new bug was taken from tussocks in the willows, along with a new spider. The spider list is pretty good for the reserve at 86, so it has been a surprise to be able to add some in January. Maybe it's because it's January, but more likely it's because of bothering tussocks in the different habitats.

More expected were Palloptera scutellata, which I can always beat from the spruce trees in January, and Orchestis fagi, which on this occasion was obtained by battering some dead ivy on Beech in the woods. Usually it shows up in leaf litter.

Cymus glandicolor

Ozyptilus trux

Orchestes fagi

If I said this was a broad-nosed weevil beaten from Gorse you could probably still identify it from this picture. 

A.regensteinense

The Palloptera

Rush flutter fly

Recent additions

83					340	diptera	Aphanotrigonum trilineatum
84					110	mollusc	Trochulus hispidus
85			R	M	330	coleoptera	Quedius cinctus
86					330	coleoptera	Cychrus caraboides
87				M	330	coleoptera	Tachinus subterraneus
88					170	spider	Neriene clathrata
89					170	spider	Pachygnatha degeeri
90					330	coleoptera	Pterostichus nigrita
91					330	coleoptera	Orchestes fagi
92					330	coleoptera	Stenus pubescens
93			R	M	320	hemiptera	Cymus glandicolor
94			R	M	170	spider	Ozyptila trux
95					330	coleoptera	Andrion regensteinense
96					340	diptera	Palloptera scutellata
97			R		340	diptera	Tephrochlamys rufiventris

Beetles

	1			330	coleoptera	Agonum thoreyi	A ground beetle
	2	R	M	330	coleoptera	Altica palustris	A ground beetle
	3			330	coleoptera	Amara plebeja	A ground beetle
	4			330	coleoptera	Andrion regensteinense	A broad-nosed Weevil
	5			330	coleoptera	Anotylus rugosus	A rove beetle
	6			330	coleoptera	Anthobium unicolor	A rove beetle
	7			330	coleoptera	Bembidion aeneum	A ground beetle
	8			330	coleoptera	Bembidion guttula	A ground beetle
	9	R		330	coleoptera	Bembidion mannerheimi	A ground beetle
	10	R		330	coleoptera	Carabus problematicus	A ground beetle
	11			330	coleoptera	Chrysolina polita	Knot-grass Leaf Beetle
	12			330	coleoptera	Coccinella septempunctata	7-spot Ladybird
	13			330	coleoptera	Cychrus caraboides	Snail Hunter
	14			330	coleoptera	Exapion ulicis	A weevil
	15			330	coleoptera	Lathrobium brunnipes	A rove beetle
	16			330	coleoptera	Micrambe ulicis	A beetle
	17	R	M	330	coleoptera	Omalium excavatum	A rove beetle
	18			330	coleoptera	Orchestes fagi	A weevil
	19			330	coleoptera	Oulema sp.	Cereal Leaf Beetle
	20			330	coleoptera	Paradromius linearis	A ground beetle
	21	R		330	coleoptera	Phaedon tumidulus	A leaf beetle
	22	R		330	coleoptera	Philonthus decorus	A rove beetle
	23	R		330	coleoptera	Psylliodes napi	A leaf beetle
	24			330	coleoptera	Pterostichus nigrita	A ground beetle
	25			330	coleoptera	Pterostichus strenuus	A ground beetle
	26	R	M	330	coleoptera	Quedius cinctus	A rove beetle
	27	R	M	330	coleoptera	Sciaphilus asperatus	A broad-nosed weevil
	28			330	coleoptera	Silpha atrata	A carrion beetle
	29			330	coleoptera	Sitona lineatus	Pea-leaf Weevil
	30			330	coleoptera	Stenus brunnipes	A rove beetle
	31			330	coleoptera	Stenus impressus	A rove beetle
	32	R		330	coleoptera	Stenus juno	A rove beetle
	33			330	coleoptera	Stenus pubescens	A rove beetle
	34		M	330	coleoptera	Tachinus subterraneus	A rove beetle
	35			330	coleoptera	Tachyporus dispar	A rove beetle
	36			330	coleoptera	Tachyporus hypnorum	A rove beetle
	37			330	coleoptera	Trichocellus placidus	A ground beetle

Flies  

1	C	R	M	340	diptera	Aphanotrigonum trilineatum	A frit fly
2		R		340	diptera	Crumomyia roserii	A lesser dung fly
3		R		340	diptera	Hylemya nigrimana	A flower fly
4				340	diptera	Leptocera fontinalis	A lesser dung fly
5	C	R	M	340	diptera	Limnellia fallax	A shore fly
6				340	diptera	Lonchoptera lutea	Yellow spear-winged fly
7				340	diptera	Lotophila atra	A lesser dung fly
8		R	M	340	diptera	Mycetophila fungorum	A fungus gnat
9				340	diptera	Palloptera scutellata	Rush Flutter Fly
10		R	M	340	diptera	Schwenckfeldina carbonaria	A sciarid fly
11				340	diptera	Sepsis cynipsea	A sepsid fly
12		R		340	diptera	Tephrochlamys rufiventris	A heleomyzid fly

Arachnids

1				150	harvestman	Megabunus diadema
2				150	harvestman	Nemastoma bimaculatum
3				150	harvestman	Paroligolophus agrestis
4				150	harvestman	Platybunus triangularis
5				160	pseudoscorpion	Neobisium carcinoides
6		R	M	170	spider	Agroeca proxima
7				170	spider	Amaurobius fenestralis
8				170	spider	Amaurobius similis
9				170	spider	Bathyphantes nigrinus
0				170	spider	Centromerita bicolor
11				170	spider	Clubiona comta
12				170	spider	Drapetisca socialis
13			M	170	spider	Drassodes cupreus
14				170	spider	Gnathonarium dentatum
15				170	spider	Helophora insignis
16		R		170	spider	Macrargus rufus
17				170	spider	Monocephalus fuscipes
18				170	spider	Neriene clathrata
19				170	spider	Neriene peltata
10		R		170	spider	Ozyptilus trux
21				170	spider	Pachygnatha degeeri
22				170	spider	Tenuiphantes cristatus
23		R	M	170	spider	Tenuiphantes mengei
24				190	tick	Ixodes ricinus

Bugs

1			M	320	hemiptera	Balclutha punctata
2		R		320	hemiptera	Chartoscirta cincta
3		R	M	320	hemiptera	Cymus glandicolor
4		R		320	hemiptera	Dicyphus stachydis
5		R	M	320	hemiptera	Eupelix cuspidata
6				320	hemiptera	Stenodema calcarata
7				320	hemiptera	Stenodema holsata

Snail Snuffler

Cychrus caraboides , the snail hunter, is beetle #33 for 2021, with a couple of Tachinus subterraneus from some flood refuse at #34.

Spider #16 is this nice male Neriene clathrata. Like other Neriene, a big lad for a money spider.

Spider #17 is Pachygnatha degeeri

Processing continues at a year total of 89 inverts and looking for 90 by end of play, which, of all things, is likely to be an earthworm.

Drip, drip, drip

With the pitter patter of hailstones on my hood I was happy to let them bounce off as i played in the grass pile. Quedius cinctus, new to me and to the reserve, became the 32nd beetle of the year and the 24th new addition to the catalogue. It's quite a distinctive Quedius and the two parallel lines of punctures on the shiny elytrae mark it as being in its own subgenus. 

What with ice and rain and domestic duties it's been a slow couple of days. Still, like the rain there's a steady drip of new additions. When I get my act together I'll definitely try to bring back a sample for filtering semi-properly.

The brown, brown grass of home

 My new friend is a giant pile of grass cuttings, thoug hI had to go back to leaf litter on Saturday because I couldn't get to the car park (ice). Hopefully I'll be running the whole thing through a sieve in the next couple of weeks. It gives up something each time. Nothing spectacular happening, but grinding away towards triple digits.

74					330	spider	Tenuiphantes mengei	A money spider
75					330	coleoptera	Silpha atrata	A carrion Beetle
76					170	spider	Amaurobius fenestralis	A lace-webbed spider
77			R		170	spider	Macrargus rufus	A money spider
78					220	crustacean	Porcellio scaber	Rough Woodlouse
79			R		330	coleoptera	Philonthus decorus	A rove beetle
80					170	spider	Helophora insignis	A money spider
81					200	millipede	Polydesmus denticulatus	a Millipede
82			R	M	390	insect-other	Epicaecilius pilipennis	A bark-louse

Beetle #30

 is Silpha atrata. And about time, too