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

Gnashers

Managed two visits yesterday - a "routine" visit during the day and an evening session to put out the moth trap (to no avail, it turned out).

The evening first - an interesting one, despite the dropping temperature, and there was plenty to see on tree trunks. Tree slugs, earwigs and woodlice were more evident, allowing me to round out my standard woodlouse list with Oniscus asellus. 

Also another Dromius quadrimaculatus, the arboreal and nocturnal ground beetle which I always expect to see on a tree trunk somewhere.

The first moth of the year, at last, was this Chestnut low down on a tree trunk

A routine find on vertical surfaces, especially trees, is the harvestman Oligolophus hanseni. This is a fairly recent addition but I've found it during the early months in various places now.

More of a  surprise was this Hawthorn Shieldbug

The best for me of yesterday was during the day, though, with this Pachygnathus clercki. This isn't new to the reserve, but it was new for me. Cracking set of gnashers

With February coming to a close the invert list is now at 181, with some material still to examine. The spider list now looks like this:

1	spider	Agroeca proxima	A Spider
2	spider	Amaurobius fenestralis	Lace-webbed Spider
3	spider	Amaurobius similis	A laceweb spider
4	spider	Bathyphantes approximatus	A Linyphid spider
5	spider	Bathyphantes nigrinus	A Linyphiid spider
6	spider	Centromerita bicolor	A money spider
7	spider	Clubiona comta	A Clubionid spider
8	spider	Drapetisca socialis	A Linyphiid spider
9	spider	Drassodes cupreus	A ground spider
10	spider	Gnathonarium dentatum	A money spider
11	spider	Helophora insignis	A money spider
12	spider	Larinioides cornutus	An orb weaver
13	spider	Macrargus rufus	A money spider
14	spider	Metellina mengei	An Orb Weavng Spider
15	spider	Monocephalus fuscipes	A money spider
16	spider	Neriene clathrata	Herb Hammock Spider
17	spider	Neriene montana	A money spider
18	spider	Neriene peltata	A money spider
19	spider	Nuctenea umbratica	An orb weaver
20	spider	Ozyptilus trux	Crab Spider
21	spider	Pachygnatha clercki	A spider
22	spider	Pachygnatha degeeri	A Long-jawed Orb Weaver
23	spider	Tenuiphantes cristatus	A money spider
24	spider	Tenuiphantes mengei	A money spider
25	spider	Tibellus maritimus	A spider
26	spider	Xysticus cristatus	Crab Spider

Giving me the ich - Scambus elegans

On a nocturnal visit to Cullaloe this week I spotted what I thought was a spider dangling from a Willow branch. Slipping the rim of the net under it I scooped it - only to find a female ichneumonid wasp in the net. No spider, though there could have been one which has been saved from a sticky end.

Early investigations made me head for Pimplinae and - yippee! - I have a key. It has literally taken me all day on and off to unpack the vagaries of wasp key glossary madness (errr, I mean I was working from home). I ended up at Scambus elegans, and, unbelievably, this seems to be correct. There are 4 records on NBN. If it's univoltine and mature in February that's no wonder, though. What kind of idiot's looking for Ichneumons in February?

This happy idiot :)

Spot the yellow stigmata

Shiny posterior to tergites are typically pimpline

Subtle elegans-ness

Short numbers note: despite spending years looking at Cullaloe and a whole year hammering it for a 1K challenge only two years ago I've seen in the first 7 weeks of 2021: 14 new diptera, 4 new spiders, 23 new beetles, 8 new bugs and a new wasp. This has to be, in part, from ignoring everything that isn't an invertebrate. There must be some sort of lesson there.

Here's some old wasp

Buggin

A nocturnal visit (well, 7pm anyway)  added a few species to the year list, but also this Nabis ferus to the reserve list as bug #80. Interestingly this is the 2nd species I've added this year which I found in the Cullaloe Hills in February of last year. I can't explain why in all the sweeping of the same area during spring-autumn I've never knowingly seen this one before. However, this is the first year the "flower meadow" hasn't been mown. not sure that will be good for the botanical site monitoring later. Be interesting to see how the area responds to not being mown.

2021 bug #13, 2021 new bug #8 (!)

Reserve bug #80

More spots

A species I always go looking for when the nights get milder. Can almost always find one after head-torching a few tree trunks

2021 beetle #66, Dromius quadrimaculatus

Already listed, but amazing to see the Triplex aenea out to play on the dead Horse Chestnut and associated fungi

No apparent damage - spore feeders?

A quick tap over the sweep net

Spotty Stenus

Stenus bimaculatus is a beetle I found in the Cullaloe Hills last February, but it was nice to see it show up on the reserve as the 65th beetle species of the year. It's the 11th species of Stenus for the reserve and the 6th this year. I knew it was going to be new because none of the other 10 species are spotty.

It was in the eternally-giving grass pile near the car park. If I had only skimmed the top layer of that pile today, now that it's warmed up. I could probably have half the species re-recorded! It was tempting to take a video of how much movement there was in the tray.

The mega grass pile in all its glory

2021 beetlle #65 - Stenus bimaculatus

Nymph-tastic

Easy, tiger. Went pond dipping with the boy at lunchtime and we didn't fare very well in diversity. However, spying a couple of nymphs with three tails had me reaching for a pot, and excitedly hauling the brand new "Pictorial Guide to British Ephemeroptera" from the shelves. I had only just noticed that nymphs were keyed too, so I was hopeful this might just work.

Unlike many other things that I thought were difficult (and they were) this turned out to be easier than expected. Beginner's luck, no doubt. Gills at the side of the body, streamlined body, antennae relatively long -> Baetidae. Lovely. "Tails" unbanded, centre one shorter -> 5 spp. of Baetis. O.K....

Couple of species out of range; check the others. Baetis rhodani ... gill 1 and 7 same size - yup, gill edge with spines as well as hairs - yup. Spines separate B.rhodani from all other Baetis. Awesome! And habitat is spot on in stony-bottomed fast moving stream. My first ever mayfly keying, and it's only February. Happy days.

Baetis rhodani is the 48th new species for the reserve this year and the 32nd new species for me (from here)