Isolepis setacea, Bristle Club-rush, in Cullaloe Hills

After a weekend with Seth adding a few new plants to tip me over the 900, we didn't really come into habitat that would work for this small plant, but I did know from Seth's description that the path through the Cullaloe Hills should be perfect.

So it was that, avoiding a bus that was on fire on the way to my dad's, I ended up detoured to that exact spot. I pulled over and took about 45 seconds to add it to NT18, one of the few squares in the country where it's not recorded. Job done. It might have been 30 seconds had I not had to fend off a large, muddy dog, whose owner assured me was friendly. I had to point out that, friendly or not, it was covered in mud that I didn't want and swore at the dog. He got the message and called it away pretty quickly, fortunately. 

NT18 is the "mline" of "Dunfermline"

Possibly the worst field photo of all time, any plant

Rhamphomyia albohirta - an empid fly from the Cullaloe Hills

Swept from Salix (willow) catkins on the 19th April, this fringed specimen appears to be new to the county. It looks like the specific name comes from the male which, rather than fringed legs, has legs with white hair.

Dicranoymia morio new to fife from Cullaloe area

Seen on a low grass stem beside a hedge opposite Cullaloe LNR this appears to be new to Fife, though it is widespread in the UK. It is pretty small, though, so no doubt overlooked. According to Shropshire Craneflies it's a ditch lover

Dark-edged Bee Fly - Bombylius major

Cullaloe Hills, and out and about elsewhere in the county now too

Atrecus affinis - rotten wood rove beetle

A staph from rotten Betula. A small piece of log taken home contained (at least) 4 more specimens, (the first found by SM in the field).

Cullaloe Hills - Cyclosa conica

While wandering the Cullaloe hills in search of green mushrooms I swept a nice spider oddity from the edge of the woods - Cyclosa conica. Not particularly hard to recognise, this one, and a nice unexpected new species for me, though Britain's Spiders shows it's expected at least in the south of Fife.

Cullaloe Hills Rush Disco (Lachnum apalum)

On the base of Juncus effusus, a very common discomycete

(x400)

Cullaloe Hills tub trap update

3rd Mar update -
        Spelobia clunipes - fish-baited trap (02.iii)

The tub, which has been in place for just over a month, has added one more heleomyzid. The bottle trap, where the bait has dried a bit, has produced nothing more, but the weather has been abysmal - either very cold or very windy with rain & snow.

Shortly I'll reset this with fresh bait, though with new things coming in maybe that's a mistake. I'd like to make some modifications though, with a wire mesh to prevent fouling of specimens (and egg laying).

DIPTERA

Sphaeroceridae
Copromyza nigrina - fish-baited trap
Crumomyia fimetaria - leaf litter and trap
Crumomyia nitida - fish-baited trap
Crumomyia roserii - fish-baited trap
Lotophila atra - leaf litter
Leptocera fontinalis - fish-baited trap (25.ii)
Spelobia clunipes (2.iii)

C.roserii - yellow tarsi

C.fimetaria

The very spikey Leptocera fontinalis

Spelobia clunpes

Heleomyzidae
Neoleria propinqua
Scoliocentra villosa
Suillia variegata (in leaf litter, not in trap)
Tephrochlamys rufiventris
Heleomyza captiosa

Calliphoridae
Calliphora vicina

COLEOPTERA

Leiodidae
Catops tristis
Catops grandicollis (17.ii.20)

(n.b. other small Staphs have been encountered occasionally, but beyond my abilities)

Euophryum confine in rotten birchood

In rotten Betula beside the small quarry area across the road north from Cullaloe LNR

Wild Weekend in the Cullaloe Hills

So I was intending to be at the BLS AGM this weekdn but for one reason or another that didn't happen. However I didn't waste the weekend, with an hour or two to play out on Saturday I went looking for this to add to the county list ...

Phaeoceros laevis

new-to-county hornwort

I had found hornworts in this field but had no luck cementing their ID - this ought to do it I think. Arable fields are a great place to find a range of bryophytes and I spent a good hour picking up this, Fossombronia pusilla, Bryum rubens, and some others before wandering along the side of a piece of marshy ground, where I found this ...

Pseudocyphellarium norvegicum (not...)

This is not only a new lichen to Fife but also new to the eastern half of Britain. If accepted it will definitely look like a mistake on any atlas from now on! (Edit: this is actually the closely-related Sticta limbata, the only previous record of which is from 1824!)

Yesterday I did a bit of tussocking (Juncus effusus, Deschampsia) and came up with this ...

Hydrothassa marginella

new-to-county leaf beetle

This new pet square is definitely delivering the goods. Looking forward to when it really kicks off

Rot hole rat-tails

While wandering across a little-visited area of my new patch (Cullaloe Hills, NT1888) I noticed a rot-hole in a sycamore. Fortunately I was sporting gardening gloves for leaf litter sieving and a cursory dip revealed a nice Myathropa florea larva. A further investigation later revealed two more, but nothing additional.

Lonchaea patens, Cullaloe Hills, NT1888, 12.i.2020

A larva found in a wet pocket of felled Fraxinus trunk on the 12th January, which I initially planned to rear out. However, since I had already examined another lonchaeid larva I decided to compare this one. This one was much easier to determine with the RES Lonchaeidae book, though the other one may also give itself up eventually.

Habitus

Posterior spiracles

Head skeleton and toroidal mouthhooks

Anterior spiracle post KOH application

Various spicules, including anal (bottomlright)

Where it was found

Crumomyia roserii in the Cullaloe Hills

Caught at a fish-baited trap, this little lesser dung fly has yellow-brown tibiae as an "obvious" feature

infuscated wings

yellow tibia

pleural dusting pattern is helpful in ID

Juncus bulbosus (Bulbous Rush) and Lophocolea semiteres in the Cullaloe Hills

The plant from which last post's bug was taken, this was growing in the ditch beside the path under the mossy embankment

The liverwort Lophocolea semiteres was also not far off th epath, growing principally at the base of a large conifer. It appears to be new to the county (edit: confirmed). This is the male plant below, but female plants were also there.

Acalypta parvula from Cullaloe Hills

Spotted under the microscope on a specimen of Bulbous Rush, this very small bug is a moss lover which overwinters as an adult

Tussocking Cullaloe Hills

About 20 minutes looking through 3 tussocks on the edge of Cullaloe Hills produces a number of beetle species and several Nemastona bimaculata harvestmen.

Amara plebeja (1)
Pterostichus strenuus (1)
Trechus obtusus (1)
Bembidion sp. (1) - to be determined
Stenus juno (5)
Tachyporinae (1) - to be determined

Most of these are expected species with wide ranges, but a fungus on the Trechus may prove to be interesting.It's a Laboulbeniomycete and appears to be a species of Rhachomyces. It may be new to Britain if its identity can be nailed down.