A new Operational Taxonomic Unit* for Cullalue - Tephrina betulae

On the fallen leaves of birch. Also T.populina on the fallen aspen leaves this morning

*Operational taxonomic unit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In phylogeny an operational taxonomic unit (OTU) is an operational definition of a species or group of species often used when only DNA sequence data is available.[1] It is the most commonly used microbial diversity unit.

The definition given by NCBI is:

"Taxonomic level of sampling selected by the user to be used in a study, such as individuals, populations, species, genera, or bacterial strains."

Another definition:

"Operational taxonomic unit, species distinction in microbiology. Typically using rRNA and a percent similarity threshold for classifying microbes within the same, or different, OTUs"

The number of OTUs defined may be inflated due to errors in DNA sequencing.

Violet Ground Beetle

This one not from Cullaloe, but from Bavelaw/Red Moss in the Lothians. A nice beetle, though

200 lepidoptera!

Two new moth species from an early session last night took the reserve list to 200, including butterflies. Hopefully the 200 moth total will soon be reached. New ones were Mottled Grey and Yellow Horned (also new for NT18). This takes the new species for this year to 57, and the total species to 1363. 137 to go!

50 lichens!

So Protoblastenia rupestris has become the 50th lichen to be recorded at Cullaloe. A lovely mortar-lover which was inhabiting a small corner of a chunk of mortar on the wall near the disabled car park. There are plenty more to come but 50 was the target for this year.

Egle ciliata - a flower fly (Anthmoyiidae)

This nice little Anthomyiid fly is abundant at the moment, basking on sunlit tree trunks and often covered in Sallow pollen from the nearby Salix (cinerea presumably) trees. It's the most widespread of its genus.

Cullaloe newt

Palmate, I think. Seemed entirely sober, but then it was early.

Back to Cullaloe lichens

A lovely Physcia aipolia on the wooden fence near the entrance and Xanthoria polycarpa on a hawthorn near the filter beds