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1/2 #speciesaday no. 606 is Acrosathe annulata (Coastal Silver-stiletto). Nationally Scarce. Primarily coastal on sandy places by the sea, it does sometimes turn up inland on really sandy heaths. There are a few look likes but none are quite like this tiny yeti!

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

Almost coming to the end run of lots of back to back field work in May, I have a pile of eight notebooks already that need emptying. Must be about 5,000 records in there.

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 605 is Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa quercus). A large and distinctive larva (even bigger for the females). Adults are seen in July & August where the males fly fast and erratically on sunny days searching for females. Feeds on a wide range of woody plants. This larva was seen yesterday

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

#speciesaday no. 604 is Yellow Vetchling (Lathyrus aphaca). Vulnerable. Not to be confused with Meadow Vetchling or Yellow-vetch. I found this singleton on a set-a-side area of an arable field on a farm on the west of Brighton today. I last saw this in Sx in 2011 c500 m away, and that was a twitch!

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 603 is Rhagium mordax. A big seasonal saproxylic longhorn beetle with quite short antennae. Out now, seen when beating hawthorns etc. Uses hard woods (unlike Rhagium bifasciatum).

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 602 is Miris striatus. A large & impressive predatory plant bug that is common from May to June. You can find them by beating oak and hawthorn. Nothing looks anything like this. Love this time of year!

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

232 field identifications yesterday at Ewhurst Park in four hours of intense recording of invertebrates the best day of the year so far. Including six species of longhorn beetle and thee records of Grammoptera ustulata from 3 compartments! (I also had one is East Sx at Wadhurst Park the day before!)

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

A good day for macro moths yesterday: Sprawler, Spring Usher, Mottled Beauty, Pale Brindled Beauty, Small Quaker, Common Quaker, Lackey, Short-cloaked Moth, Figure-of-eight, Satellite, Brindled Green, Winter Moth, Copper Underwing, Svensson's Copper Underwing. It's worth learning your caterpillars!

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

1/2 #speciesaday no. 601 is Cotton-wool Gall (Andricus quercusramuli). Caused by a wasp on oaks but uncommon. Most of my records are in May with a few in June and July. I have seen it on the same trees many years apart but not on very similar trees nearby.

submitted 15 days ago • 2 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 600 is Water Ladybird (Anisosticta novemdecimpunctata). A small, heavily-spotted, elongate hygrophilous ladybird. Found in a wide variety of wetland conditions throughout the year.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/05/trap... Read about a mad weekend of rock-pooling and how I got caught out for the first time ever.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 599 is Elaphrus riparius. A stunning carabid that is usually found on bare mud by water. Smaller and greener than E. cupreus. You can see why they call this genus peacock beetles! This one was from Broughton Sanctuary last month.

submitted 17 days ago • 4 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 598 is Odacantha melanura. Nationally Scarce. An atypical carabid associated with Common Reed. Seems to be quite local and patchy in its distribution. I have records between March and August. Unlike any other carabid. This one was from London Wetland Centre last week.

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

Hey British media, It’s no surprise that if you give Farage the run of the place, he’ll start winning. Time to do your actual jobs and start interrogating him on his Brexit shitshow, his funding, his Trumpiness, his idiotic manifesto, his real plans for the NHS… instead of drumrolling him into No.10

submitted 18 days ago • 451 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 397 is Centrotus cornutus (Horned Treehopper). A local species found on woodland edge type habitats in May & June (I have records from 26th April to 28th June). Unmistakable, nothing else looks anything like this in the UK.

submitted 18 days ago • 3 comments

#speciesaday no. 596 is Cirl Bunting. Never thought I would see this on a survey but it was the first thing I wrote down yesterday. I last saw them 21 years ago at Exminster, this being only my 2nd record. Nearby a Cetti's Warbler singing from dense Gorse scrub added to the strangeness.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Celebrating a major milestone this week. 🎉 My first issue as editor of the British Mycological Society’s Field Mycology publication is now online and available #OpenAccess for all to read. ➡️ fieldmycology.org Please read and share!

submitted 19 days ago • 5 comments

#speciesaday no. 595 is Tethya citrina (Golf Ball Sponge). First time I have seen this at The Pound. My only other records are from Jersey. Large and spherical, about the size of a satsuma. Spiky bits on closer inspection.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

#speciesaday no. 594 is Lobster (Homarus gammarus). I saw this immature at The Pound last week, only ever seen a handful of live Lobsters. Unmistakable. Note, unlike crabs if you pick the up by the carapace from behind they can still nip you.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

#speciesaday no. 594 is Cycloporus papillosus. A marine flatworm that I found on the underside of a rock at Felpham (along with a young Conger Eel) on Sunday. First time i have seen this species.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 594 is Corkwing Wrasse (Symphodus melops). The commonest wrasse in rockpools down south. This stonking male was caught last night at The Pound. By far the brightest one I have ever seen.

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

I grew up with Willow Tits but not heard one call for maybe two decades.

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

#speciesaday no. 593 is Shore Rockling at first light this morning. This is only the 2nd one I have seen and the first I have seen in Sussex. Only has 3 beards and is much bigger than the much commoner Five-bearded Rockling. Quite a powerful fish! At The Pound this morning.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

A lot of excitement yesterday when we found a Conger Eel larva at Ovingdean Beach. Adults are very common just off shore and you occasionally find the immatures in the rock pools here but I have never seen the larva before, very different to Anguila anguila larva. Took a while to figure it out!

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

1/2 #speciesaday no. 582 is Byctiscus betulae. A Nationally scarce b (and declining) weevil that I netted in flight yesterday on Ashdown Forest. Feeds on birches and Hazel. Very shiny and it might even be new to Ashdown Forest. Always catch beetles in flight!

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

1/2 #speciesaday no. 591 is Ranatra linearis (Water Stick-insect). A huge aquatic water bug (bottom right to find a Plea minutissima for scale! - they couldn't be more different). Not that scarce but always nice to find, walks on back two pairs of legs. Breathing tube at rear. Flies readily too.

submitted 26 days ago • 2 comments

1/2 #speciesaday no. 590 is Plea minutissima (Pygmy Backswimmer). A tiny aquatic water bug that is often very common when doing aquatic invertebrate surveys in ponds, lakes and ditches etc. Couldn't look more to different to some of the other aquatic Heteroptera. They're so cute, just a few mm!

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

1/2 #speciesaday no. 589 is Small or Lesser Bloody-nosed Beetle (Timarcha goettingensis). A flightless chrysomelid mainly found in calcareous places, but also on a few heaths in the county. Feeds on bedstraws and has very cute feet-like tarsi. Often spotted out in open on short turf in the spring

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment