2021 PSL Highlights

2021 has been one of my biggest PSL years, with over 550 species added. This leaves me about 500 short of 5k, which I really hope to reach next year. By far the biggest gains were in plants, a combination of trips to Skye and Dorset and some direction of effort locally. Second up was moths at over 100, which is in large part due to acquiring a generator. Still surprising that most of those were local records. Across other taxonomic groups there was plenty to get excited about and in reality it's hard to believe that I saw all of those things for the first time this year - at a rate of  about 1.6 new species per day!

 Algae

A couple - Sargassum and Cytoseira baccata, both Weymouth

Fungi

Nothing spectacular. Helvella crispa (below) was nice, and I finally found a morel on some woodchip. Fungus bothering was largely confined to the latter stages of the year.

Vascular Plants

So many! 160 additions including about 50 each from both Skye (thanks Seth et al!) and Dorset (thanks Pete!). Those days were definitely the highlights of the year.

I've just come doon fae the Isle o Skye...

Moonwort

Cyphel, the awesome Trotternish ridge

Slender Centaury, Eype - Stace time!

Bee Orchid, Bridport (ish?)

Sponges

Compressed Purse Sponge in both Skye and Dalgety Bay. As is so often the case, being shown it opens the door to being able to find it.

Comb Jellies

Still none. Strictly speaking I did think I could see comb jellies from the pier at Braefoot, but I had no way of getting to them! I could have dived in amongst the jellies ... erm, no thanks. I need some sort of bucket on a line.

Cnidarians

Dahlia anemones found at very low tide Dalgety Bay. I love this group. A group I hope to see more of on Scilly in 2022.

Molluscs

Best, as usual, were sea slugs, with Fjordia lineata the favourite and Calma gobioophaga from Skye being a significant find, if not by me! However, I did catch up with blue-rayed limpet in the same location, so that was definitely my best mollusc spot & day of the year.

Fjordia lineata, Dalgety Bay

Calma gobioophaga, Elgol, Skye

Blue-rayed Limpet, Elgol, Skye

Worms (s.l.)

Microplana terrestris. Hmmmm, ok. Best new worm of the year was undoubtedly the spectacular Bootlace Worm, which I saw a couple of times under intertidal rocks in Dalgety Bay.

Arachnids

A few bits and bobs, with the scarce Aelurillus v-insignitus from Pettycur the undoubted highlight

Myriapods

Geophilus carpophagus the only addition

Crustaceans

Porcellio spinicornis was a nice one in January at Cullaloe, while the prawns Palaemon elegans and Praunus flexuosus both came from Dalgety Bay rockpools. In December. An unexpected bonus was the estuarine isopod Lekanesphaera rugicauda under a rock in Torry Bay when I really intended to go tussocking.

Lekanesphaera rugicauda

Odonata

Golden-ringed Dragonfly and Four-spot Chaser from Skye both show up my lack of previous interest in Odonata! Fife just doesn't have enough to make it worth the effort. Banded Demoiselle in Oxford while punting on the Thames (yes, really) was memorable, but I was too busy trying not to fall in to be able to take a photo. Lost my hat, too.

Orthopteroids

Field and Mottled Grasshoppers added to another basically unexplored taxonomic area. More outings to the south of Britain required.

Hemipteroids

One of the best categories this year with both memorable and new additions. 29 in total, so not big, but I do remember quite a few of them. The most notable is probably the finely-clothed Nothodelphax distincta which I first found on cottongrass in Fife and then targetted and found also on Skye. From what I've seen it particularly prefers Eriophorum vaginatum.

Nothodelphax distincta

Another big win was a species I really wanted to see, but didn't expect to add to the Fife fauna - the Blue Shieldbug, Zicrona caerulea. What a beaut!

Blue Shieldbug

A brownfield win, and maybe the only Scottish record, was the mirid bug Deraeocoris scutellaris, This is from one of my favourite new spots in Dalgety Bay, an area of "wasteland" industrial estate that is special because it's so different from the area around it.

Macrotylus paykulli, a mirid bug not really known from Scotland except a couple of records in Lothian, was another lucky one. I found this at Tentsmuir and then followed up by sweeping for it in North Ayrshire a few days later. It's a Restharrow lover which now has an extended range on both east and west coasts. I need to do much more coverage of anything remotely calcareous.

Hymenoptera

Not as much as I had hoped initially but I did learn a lot more about Hymenoptera in the last year or so. Eutomostethus ephippium, a sawfly on a random car park stop was probably one I best remember. Spider hunting wasp Anoplius nigerrimus and Sabre Wasp Rhyssa persuasoria both from the Cullaloe Hills were also both nice ones that made the day at the time.

Eutomostethus ephippium, Lochwinnoch

Coleoptera

The start of the year consisted of pulling lots of new beetles from mostly Deschampsia tussocks. This continued on to my largest ever iRecord beetle counts in terms of records (231) and species (162). Modest, but still a lot more than my typical beetle year. For context, by the end of the year I had still seen not much over 300 beetle species.

Cliff Tiger at Eype, however, is the easy winner for beetle of the year, with Hypera nigrirostris the most beautiful. The Tiger was speedy and no photograph was obtained, but it was fun to hear Pete saying, "This is usually around the kind of place you would see a ... Tiger Beetle! Tiger Beetle!!". Can't explain why I have no nice pic of the Hypera, mind you.

Out of 60+ additions I must have forgotten something nice.

As random as you can get we made a completely unexpected stop at Kew gardens in the summer and I looked down on the nice leaf beetle Paropsisterna selmani, sitting in a pathside hedge. Another couple of nice ones are featured below.

Paropsisterna selmani, from Kew Gardens

Necrodes littoralis, new to VC85 from Dalgety Bay

Pine Weevil, Cullaloe hills

Diptera

A middling year for diptera with 54 additions, though with plenty still on pins awaiting determination.

Best day was probably at Tentsmuir, where I ostensibly went to look for bugs. I found Flea Beefly B.pulicaris and Dune Robber along with new-to-county soldierfly in Oxycera trilineata (Three-lined Soldier). Happy days! 

Oxycera trilineata

Closer to home a new addition to the Fife fauna was a fairly scarce heleomyzid in Scolicentra dupliciseta at Cullaloe.

Scoliocentra dupliciseta, Cullaloe LNR

Butterflies

On a rainy stay in Portland the only new butterfly I added during a brief sunny spell was Silver-studded Blue at Portland. Happily(!), that leaves me lots of new butterflies to see, and plenty reason to get south again.

Moths 

Some nice Fife moths in and around Dalgety Bay, including the cover star of the micros book, which I had several times (despite only 3 previous Fife records). I managed to submit 1400 records over the year, which is by far my highest tally ever, and added 101 to my overall moth total. I also got permission to trap at Tentsmuir, which allowed me to catch up with the likes of The Anomalous and Archer's Dart. Can I ever see that level of gains again? Without specific effort, it seems improbable.

Carcina quercana, Dalgety Bay

Orange Sallow, Dalgety Bay

Archer's Dart, Tentsmuir

Oncocera semirubella, Portland

Echinoderms

Finally found an edible sea urchin in the Bay, then tragically crushed it with a rock by accident.

Tunicates

Ciona intestinalis was a nice addition from Dalgety bay, but not as cute as Baked Bean ascidian, Dendrodoa grossularia.

Baked Bean Ascidian

Fish

Brook Lamprey in Skye easily the most memorable, as they were spawning and oblivious to our close presence. I was also quite taken with Worm Pipefish in Dalgety Bay.

Terrible pic of Brook Lampreys

Mammals

A Wood Mouse was a nice surprise on a moth-trapping session.