Lots of amazing invertebrates away from the rock pools on Jersey too! analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/09/one-...

A random encounter at a refurbished farmhouse - I wondered what this little orange blob moving slowly across the floor was. As soon as I saw the distinctive dash, the game was up! Oonops domesticus, new to the Lizard Peninsula @britishspiders.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk

A cracking two day trip to the Ecrehous! analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...

Getting out of the car in Camborne: Cake collection....3 minutes. Badumna longinqua count....5 It's as easy as...errrm...cake? @britishspiders.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk @chalkspring.bsky.social

A rather epic blog about the amazing rock pools of Jersey, including a whole load of awesome nudibranchs.

Surprised to see adult Pirata last week, amazed that it's P. tenuitarsis! Same reserve as the last time I saw it 3years ago, but an isolated Sphagnum mire at the other end of the very well worked site. Incredibly localised species. @britishspiders.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk

Good to finally get across to the border and do a bit of conifer wood bashing in Devon. Didn't take me long to find the mossy habitat for Centromerus serratus. It was accompanied by the usual Saaristoa firma and Porrhomma pallidum. @britishspiders.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk

#speciesaday no. 646 is Poophagus sisymbrii (ha ha, he said poop). A contender for the most stupid name of any weevil. Not scarce but weirdly my only records of this are from this year at Broughton Sanctuary in Yorkshire, where it's common in a water-cress filled ditch.

We ran a stall at Global Birdfair again, six one hour bioblitzes and pan-species listed the entire event. It was ace. analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/08/pan-...

@britishspiders.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk Me, before coffee! #ukspiders #arachnids

This Pandemis cinnamomeana was species 1000 for our small suburban garden. Barred hook-tip was 1001, would have been a nicer milestone. Species breakdown for anyone vaguely interested. #panspecieslisting @graemelyons.bsky.social

An incredible few days on the Isle of Wight last weekend, including a population of Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) found by Tony Davis and a mollusc that I found, Galeomma turtoni, that I believe is new to the Isle of Wight! analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/08/mant...

1/2 #speciesaday no. 646 is Blair's Shoulder-knot (Lithophane leautieri). A noctuid moth that feeds on cypress trees. Fairly common in gardens but patchy. This is the first time I have recorded the larva (leylandiis are always worth a good beat, especially in the winter). This one from West Beach.

A quick site recce to an Anglesey Fen (with no previous spider records), seemed like a good excuse to take the Vac. NR Attulus caricis at a new site. Had to work hard to find wet Schoenus here!! @britishspiders.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @chalkspring.bsky.social

#speciesaday no. 644 is Greater Pipefish (Syngnathus athus). This is the first one I have seen at The Pound, Eastbourne. Wil Heaney netted this youngster there last week. That's three species of pipefish I have seen there now.

I had a great morning yesterday on the way back from Broughton at Menai! Read about it here analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/08/soft...

Some frustrating news from the Pelagic the Publishers, the book launch has been put back from 21st October to 27th January next year! Gutted but nothing I can do about it. The book is over 400 pages though, it appears someone couldn't shut up once they started. pelagicpublishing.com/products/pan...

@britishspiders.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social I didn't manage a trip up on the Cairngorms plateau, but found some good spiders closer to sea level - Raft Spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus), at last, Northern Bear (Arctosa cinerea), Pardosa agricola, Bolyphantes

1/2 #speciesaday no. 643 is Curculio glandium. One of the acorn weevils with huge rostrums. This one has a broad scutellum (glandium = glands swollen = broad scutellum - these are the kind of mnemonics I use to remember how to separate species in the field or quickly at the microscope).

@britishspiders.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social A good start to my Scotland trip, but the weather forecast doesn't look promising. Clubiona subsultans, Dipoena torva (not shown), Cryphoeca silvicola, and a decent supporting cast

1/3 #speciesaday no. 642 is Musk Orchid (Herminium monorchis). Vulnerable, Nationally Scarce and Section 41. A diminutive yellow-green orchid of short, warm places on the Downs. Smells of honey when in flower. All my records are between 24th June and 1st August. #orchids #panspecieslisting #flowers

Not what I expected to see in a bit of slightly ranker maritime grassland overlooking the marvellous Penhale Sands. This Argiope bruennichi has chosen its view well! @britishspiders.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk @graemelyons.bsky.social

1/2 #speciesaday no. 641 is Scymnus schmidti. An all-black, Nationally scarce b ladybird that is commonest on the light soils of the Downs. Probably no longer warrants this status though. Very frequent with the suction sampler, this was one of several found yesterday at Southwick Hill.

You were right Jess! The Sedge bed did produce something interesting - 7 female Entelecara omissa new to Cheshire. A nice fenland species. But still debating whether it was worth missing out on ice cream for this tiddler 😆 @britishspiders.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social

How cute is this little dweeb? Silver-spotted Skipper swept today at Southwick Hill. It amazes me how much a butterfly can look like a terrier.

1/2 #speciesaday no. 640 is Small Red Damselfly (Ceriagrion tenellum). A local species of acid pools that is often very common where it occurs. Smaller, proportionally shorter and plainer than the much more widespread Large Red D and with entirely red legs. I have records from 2nd Jul to 3rd Sep.

1/2 #speciesaday no. 639 is Ectophasia crassipennis. A big, impressive tachinid that only colonised the mainland in 2019. I first saw it on Jersey in 2017 but now it is quite widespread in Sussex. A parasitoid of large bugs, especially shield bugs. I have records from 5th May to 13th Sep.

A 0.7mm long female Chartocerus subaeneus parasitoid wasp of the Signiphoridae found in the old meadow at Great Dixter this morning. Very rarely find any of this family. #UKWildlife #wasps #HighWeald #Signiphoridae

Polygraphus poligraphus, a little beetle at 2.5mm I had not run into until last week. Apparently likes Norway Spruce. Lincolnshire Woodland. #Curculionidae #Beetle #Coleoptera

Quite possibly nudibranchs are the best thing EVER! Read all about a trip to Anglesey here... analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/07/plan...

Thanks @graemelyons.bsky.social, Mark & Co for showing this Sea Slug at the weekend. Never seen one before - amazing to have such a flamboyant species in the Menai Strait. @northwaleswt.bsky.social

1/2 #speciesaday no. 637 is Hypera arator. An attractively marked, medium-sized weevil that feeds on campions, etc. Local. Never seen in numbers and a hard thing to find, it just appears. This one was on an arable margin at Wiston this week (Penny said it looked like a 1970s sofa).

1/3 #speciesaday no. 636 is Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus). A very common butterfly in July & August in grasslands that contain or are adjacent to some scrub (so woodland edge, glades and hedgerows etc.). Larvae feed on grasses. This was new to my garden today!

1/2 #speciesaday no. 635 is Six-belted Clearwing (Bembecia ichneumoniformis). The clearwing I see most frequently. Most often in arable margins, bee banks and chalk-grassland (where the larvae are in Common Bird's-foot-trefoil stems. I usually sweep them. This one was spotted in flight at Wiston.

1/3 #speciesaday no. 634 is Small Blue (Cupido minimus). Near Threatened and Section 41. Feeds on Kidney-vetch, which itself only grows on base-rich soils. Is quick to colonise new areas (it has spread around the margins on Peppering Farm this year for example). Very small. Can be numerous.

Very few spiders left of the cliffs at the moment, everything has vanished now. Nice to see this little Liny on some precarious cliff edges in North Cornwall yesterday though. Micrargus laudatus, not one that crops up too often. @britishspiders.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk @graemelyons.bsky.social

Just seen @graemelyons.bsky.social spotted a Hornet Robberfly in Sussex - must be time for me to go check out my local site for them soon then!

I found a breeding population of Carpocoris purpureipennis yesterday! Read about it here analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...

The down side to generating so many records, they pile up really quickly! 1,282 entered yesterday. Around 600 to enter today and that still leaves me six notebooks and all the Birdfair and Spurn stuff to enter.

1/2 #speciesaday no. 633 is Sitochroa palealis. Local. An impressive and distinctive pale yellow pyralid of open downland (feeds on Wild Carrot). July & August. This one is from Mile Oak Farm to the west of Brighton. All my records are kicked up out of long vegetation on the Downs.

A stare off between Talavera aequipes and me. It's very rare that these little things give me an opportunity to photograph them. This ~2mm male was unusually happy to oblige me! @britishspiders.bsky.social @cofnod.org.uk @graemelyons.bsky.social @chalkspring.bsky.social

1/2 #speciesaday no. 632 is Round-headed Rampion (Phyteuma orbiculare). The flower of Sussex. Nationally Scarce. Found on the best, untouched chalk-grassland, most commonly CG2. Can be common where it occurs. Mainly flowering in July and August. This one was at Mile Oak Farm, Brighton today.

1/2 #speciesaday no. 631 is Bog Bush-cricket (Metrioptera brachyptera). A Nationally Scarce bush-cricket of humid heaths throughout England and Wales but commonest in the south. Usually very common where it occurs. This was at Graffham Common at the weekend @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

1/2 #speciesaday no. 630 is Agonum sexpunctatum. A gorgeous carabid of damp, black, peaty mud on heaths and wooded heaths. Look for it in M16 mire, where sundews, Marsh Clubmoss and Sphagnum compactum grow. Unmistakable. I have records between March and September. This was at Graffham yesterday.

#speciesaday no. 629 is Thiodia citrana, a gorgeous tortrix moth. A lifer for me yesterday at West Beach where it was disturbed from rest (I get very few moth lifers from trapping) and my 1,298th moth species in the British Isles. A scarce tortrix in Sussex with only 11 records on the SMG page.

You know when you are gonna have a good day when the first species is something nice. Loads of Dasypoda hirtipes (this is a male) yesterday at West Beach. One of 156 species recorded.

1/2 #speciesaday no. 627 is Humming-bird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum). Nearly everyone knows the 'migratory' adult moth but here is the larva. Vac sampled from chalk-grassland on a farm in Brighton yesterday, they are well established here too. Feeds on bedstraws.

1/2 #speciesaday no. 627 is Grass Emerald (Pseudoterpna pruinata). A scarce moth in Sussex, this is only the fourth adult I have seen in the county and the first away from heathland (last was 2014). Feeds on shrubby legumes which are entirely missing from the shingle translocation on Brighton beach!

1/2 #speciesaday no. 626 is Spiked Shieldbug (Picromerus bidens). One of our few predatory shieldbugs (feeding mainly on caterpillars). I see them most on heathland but also on the chalk and other low nutrient sites with diverse botany.