If you are interested in history as well as wildlife then you might be interested in this Romans & butterflies event at Caister St Edmund, run by Norfolk Archaeological Trust next weekend (Sunday 28th June) www.norfarchtrust.org.uk/events/roman...

During the recent NNNS research project at Broadland CP a Silver-studded Blue reintroduction was carried out (after an ant survey was carried out). The good news is that a survey this week recorded 83 SSBs in multiple heath compartments, so they are now doing well. @norfolkbutterflies.bsky.social

Large Velvet "Ant", Mutilla europaea, female. (Not an ant!) #Wasps #Hymenoptera #VC14

Moth of the morning has to be The Latin a first for the garden only ever caught them in France. Clancy's Rustic was a second record the first in 2013. @dorsetmoths.bsky.social @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

North Surrey: the chalk scrapes are acting as a nursery for Surrey- provenance collected seed: Ground-pine, Wild Candytuft and Cut-leaved Germander, the latter spreading prolifically - in the wild it is struggling.

Bat hairs x 400 (first two photos). Not sure of species. Found in a dropping, which otherwise contained a mass of insect exoskeleton fragments.

Thanks for asking, the garden is still looking great!

A good day on the Astley Estate kicking off a new big project for @norfolknats.bsky.social - a large study area with masses of potential!

Very smart Chamomile Shark moth caterpillar from today’s survey - on ex-arable with lots of Corn Chamomile and Ox-eye Daisy.

#Lichen substances can have striking colours and reactions. This is Bacidina egenula, whose blue-green epithecium and outer exciple sharply intensifies in K, and whose red-brown hypothecium dulls. Note also remarkable thread-like spores. First record for VC52 Anglesey. With @robyaxley.bsky.social.

A few damp things from the garden - bee orchid, broad-barred white, common blue. I’m loving this cool showery weather tbh, watching everything green up again.

Nematus septentrionalis, or something else? On hazel in my garden - @andymus.bsky.social

Most of the black bryony up the road has glossy green leaves, but this plant decided to go with a coppery colour. Unusual but I like it!

A late lawn post for #wildflowerhour.

Myriolecis andrewii is rare, notable #lichen of British rocky shores. Found on siliceous rock in upper part of splash zone. Spectacular orange UV-fluorescence! Can be confused with M fugiens, which fluoresces similarly, but has distinctly yellowish thallus. Anglesey with @robyaxley.bsky.social.

More woodland lichens from Thursford Wood. Graphis scripta s. lat, Cladonia digitata, Hypocenomyce scalaris and Pertusaria hymenea.

What better way to spend a damp, grey afternoon than looking round Thursford Wood and finding the second occurrence of Reichlingia anombrophila in Norfolk. Distinctive bulbous ended spores.

Continuing nested thread below. Alongside Collemopsidium, Wahlenbergiella is another genus of truly #marine #lichens adapted to extreme saltwater habitat. This is W striatula, which is found on siliceous coastal rock in zone between high and low tides. Anglesey, Wales, with @robyaxley.bsky.social.

After the rain….

That photo of Mesopsocus immunis that you asked for.

Spruce pineapple gall, Sacchiphantes abietis (aphid) seen on Norway spruce in Cambs today.

Mother Shipton today in some recently created grassland in Cambs, all looking a bit dry and crunchy. Insects a bit more active on this slightly cooler day.

An invertebrate survey early this morning. The muddy edge of this ephemeral pond was a beetle magnet, with a few nice Bembidion and Stenus.

This is Collemopsidium foveolatum. Another #marine #lichen like C pelvetiae below. Common around British coasts. Typically found on #barnacles but also other shells. Sometimes calcareous rock. For more see aspenecology.com/collemopsidi.... From Anglesey on lichen survey with @robyaxley.bsky.social.

Recently on Anglesey surveying #lichens. Highlights included #marine species from intertidal zone. Excited to find Collemopsidium pelvetiae: rarely recorded lichen in unusual triple symbiosis with #cyanobacteria and #seaweed (channelled wrack, Pelvetia canaliculata)! With @robyaxley.bsky.social.

This morning I managed to see the remaining Takecallis bamboo aphid that I'd not encountered before (there are 3 species). This one was found by @caryocatactes.bsky.social at the weekend in my local park. It is Bamboo Shoot Aphid, Takecallis taiwana influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Take...

Cinnabar moth eggs on the underside of a ragwort leaf, along with an unidentified rust fungus. Holkham today.

A hogweed leaf infected with the fungus Taphridium umbelliferarum, making it look swollen and spongy.

Ask a psyllid question…is it only Psylla buxi that causes the leaf curl and woolly stuff on box, or does Spanioneura fonscolombei also do that? @norwichbirder.bsky.social

The fourth year of monitoring lichen cover on this willow trunk. This year I recorded the increasing species Dichporis taylorii for the first time. Other species more or less unchanged.

Heath Navel, Lichenomphalia ericetorum. Found at Holt Lowes, Norfolk, on Sunday. A basidiolichen (a lichen that, unusually, has a mushroom-like fruitbody). I've just written about it on my blog: www.jeremybartlett.co.uk/2026/05/19/h... #Fungi #FungiFriends #Lichens

I found one of my target aphids for this year today at Whitlingham. This is the Lime leaf-nest Aphid, Patchiella reaumuri, which curles up young growth of lime (Tilia) trees and lives in the crumpled leaves. These pseudogalls contain one big fundatrix, which gives birth to the small pale immatures.

This appears to be the larva of the sawfly Periclista lineolata, which I have seen in the last couple of days at Foxley Wood and Upgate Common. Unless there are confusion species @andymus.bsky.social ? On oak both times.

I was pretty pleased with my amazing fieldcraft in getting so close to this Green Tiger Beetle. 🤣

Bumping into something rare is always a good feeling. This is Physcia tribacioides, found in the cleft of an oak tree at Upgate Common, new to Norfolk and new to me! Not common nationally, being largely restricted to the south-west coast of England. K+ yellow.

One of my current local target species is the Sapling Sycamore Aphid, Drepanosiphum acerinum. As a result, I have been checking quite a lot of Sycamores, Field Maple etc. so have started to see quite a few other (mostly common) species associated with Acer, including lots of Periphyllus acericola.

After a fun day at the Elsing church Eco-fair representing @norfolknats.bsky.social I had a look around the churchyard. A fine colony of Gyalecta jenensis on the north wall was a highlight. Also Garden Carpet, spider Anelosimus vittatus and Small White butterfly.

Had its similarly stripy cousin Rhabdomiris striatellus today.

Miris striatus is an undeniably fine looking bug. Foxley Wood today.

Cyrtidula quercus is one of the smallest and most inconspicuous bark fungi, and is only doubtfully lichenised. It colonises young oak twigs while they are still green. Nice spores tho.

A couple of very smart Tipula vernalis hanging around the back of the sheds. Nice green eyes on the male.

Is edible. This is interesting. www.jeremybartlett.co.uk/2012/03/18/g....

Much of my garden is overrun with ground elder at the moment, so I have been admiring it. I found a couple of fungi living on it - Mycosphaerella podagrariae on the leaves and Protomyces macrospora on the stems.

The Great Glen skua portal opened up today, amazing to see Long-tailed Skuas thermalling over Loch Linnhe like giant Bee-eaters up to 1000m before whizzing northeast towards Inverness! 🪶 #ornithology #highlandbirds

After months of work my Norfolk Pseudoscorpion guide for @norfolknats.bsky.social is now on the website free to see/download. Covers 20 species recorded in Norfolk so hopefully useful for other areas of UK. norfolknaturalists.org.uk/wp/wp-conten...

Adder’s tongue fern in my garden the other day. Very reliable, always in the same patches appearing around the same date each year. A personal favourite🐍

A couple of funky caterpillars seen in recent days - Merveille du jour in a pile of logs, and Drinker in a sedge fen.

Your favourite flower pic that you asked for @jonnybirder.bsky.social @suffolkseawatcher.bsky.social - you knows what it is!

Two lichens that live below the high water mark on rocky shores. Wahlenbergiella mucosa and W. striatula. Also the marine lichen that lives on barnacles, Collemopsidium foveolatum - the tiny openings on the rough surface of the barnacle are formed by the lichen.

A 1st for Norfolk.A record for Southern Small White seen in Salthouse by Oscar Lawrence last September has been verified by our County Recorder. 📷 Oscar Lawrence