1000!

Can't believe this escaped my attention in this morning's post. The 1000th species on the Cullaloe list was one of the moths from Saturday night's trapping. I'm going to say it was this Dark Arches!

Species 1000!

The breakdown:

	Total
Vertebrate - Birds	141
Vertebrate - Other	23
Invertebrate - Lepidoptera	137
Invertebrate - Other	300
Plants - Vascular	272
Plants - Bryophytes	84
Fungi	39
Lichens	4
	1000

Weekend 28-29 June

Put out the moth trap and did a bit of hoverfly searching over the weekend. Moth trap did its part by turning up four new ones (maybe 5 - let's see!) and hoverfly netting turned up only already recorded species, except possibly one soldier beetle I still have to key out. I have also found Square-stalked Saint-John's Wort in a few places.

The mushroom turned out to be Amanita rubescens, which turned a lovely shade of pink on exposed surfaces when cut.

I also swept and keyed out the hoverfly Platycheirus granditarsis.

This leaves the current total at 497, without the soldier beetle, or the fungus on Aspen leaves, or the pondweed in the filter beds I just remembered, or the Willowherb there too ... looks like I might just make that 500 in the first half of the year!

New moths added:

Dark Arches

July Highflyer

Shoulder-striped Wainscot

Pandemis heparana

Fungal frolics

Since discovering the world of "Microfungi on Land Plants" I've been able to harvest a few straightforward 'ticks'. Identify the plant and most of the time you're almost there, with plants often playing host to rather specialised fungi.

I found this rust spectacularly over-running a Goat Willow at lunchtime. Not a good sign for the plant I would have guessed, but maybe it does this every year. I don't think so though. It seems to be Melampsora caprearum, but I have a sample to get under the microscope

In the woodland I found some rather large toadstools that had been eaten almost to nothing - gutted I missed those, but at the more emerging stage I wonder if this toadstool can be done. I'll be back to check on it later as I think it will look rather nice before it too is dismantled.

Cheilosia albitarsis sensu lato

Recently split into two species the females of two Ranunculus loving hovers can't be split. So "s.l." it is for this one

19/06/2014

Tallies and targets

With the forgotten micro now added, the list stands at 487, and the reserve total list at 997!
Interesting to revisit the targets I set in the beginning of the year to see how far off I am in terms of expectations.

	2014	2014	Target	% of
	Target	Actual	left	target
Birds	90	74	16	82
Vert other	5	4	1	80
Lepidoptera	75	77	-2	102
Diptera	15	31	-16	206
Invert other	35	50	-15	142
Vascular	200	139	61	69
Bryophytes	50	80	-30	160
Fungi	50	29	21	58
Lichens	5	3	2	60
	525	487	38	92

I thought that a huge amount of the number would come from vascular plants. It may be that I will reach 200 over the year but I have my doubts. Fortunately other groups way overcompensated for that shortfall. I still expect to comportably pass 150. The remarkable thing is that even in 139 so far recorded I have probably recorded double figures of plants not previously recorded on the reserve. During July I'll attend a grasses course. Could be a game changer!

Bryophytes saw the bonus of a BBS outing, adding a bonus 30 spp to the pot.

Obtaining a moth trap ensured that I have already passed the Lep threshold at half year. Diptera I thought would be about a dozen hoverflies plus one or two other flies that I could recognise. I wasn't expecting to double my target but now I expect I may triple it with a good run of hovers. Many flowers (e.g. hogweed) aren't really even out yet.

"Invert Other" is clearly a surprise, but also another area which has benefitted from visiting expertise and consultation. Still, way over expectation and before the end of June.

On the vertebrate side of things I still expect to make 90 species of birds, but naturally a good section of those will be autumn migrants, with residents, winterers, and summering breeders essentially done with. Looking forward to lowering the water and racking up a decent wader or three. Surely I can bag a fox or a squirrel?

That leaves the essentially autumnal pursuit of fungi. I'll still reach the target of 50 I'm pretty sure, with the main fruiting period still ahead of us. Ideally I'd like to be moving towards 100..

All this means that in the end I think only vascular plants will turn out to have been a stretch.

(Endnote: I have seen 171 and photographed 161 of the reserve's 272 species of vascular plants)

More Moths take list to 486

With the promise of a dry night I decided to try to chalk up a few moths, which turned out pretty well. Not a massive haul but a nice manageable increment on the list with 4 spp. new to the year list and the reserve list and one new to NT18 hectad 

New additions from yesterday (including a lunchtime plant)

Cryphia domestica	Marbled Beauty
Geometra papilionaria	Large Emerald
Graphiphora augur	Double Dart
Ptilodon capucina	Coxcomb Prominent
Stenotus binotatus	Timothy Grassbug
Hypericum pulchrum	Slender St John's-wort

All of the above were unrecorded on the reserve, so a decent haul. 14 species remaining to target with 4.5 days until end of June. One ground beetle in a pot. One Crambid type unidentified. Two unprocessed hoverflies (neither suspected to be new - one Cheilosia, one Sphaerophoria). Also one micro moth I suspect I have forgotten to add. But the sun is shining, and fingers are crossed. With a following wind we'll be into the last ten shortly!

Here's the stunning Large Emerald, also new to NT18

(all moth news on "Much Ado" at link)

Grypocoris stysi - species 482 (and 993)

species page on uk bugs

Some bugs are so apparently well defined that I feel it's worth having a go without even keying. This is mostly, to be fair, because the UK Bugs site and galleries are fantastic (naturally I then mis-identified it as Stenotus binotatus. ID correction credit to RW)