pooter

Ragwort: what a fantastic plant for bees

2011-11-10T16:06:00.000-08:00

Ragwort was in the news again earlier this year. I got interviewed on local radio about its value for moths (not a very rewarding experience, since the presenter seemed unable to get past his amusement at the idea of anyone actually being interested in moths). And environment minister Richard Benyon attracted a bit of attention with some ill-conceived Facebook comments about his hatred of Ragwort. Shortly after that episode, I happened upon this clump of Ragwort in full flower in the middle of one of my local SSSIs:

How many bees can you see on the flowers?

There were at least 50, which I've carefully highlighted in the second version of this photo, and they were having a fine old time necking nectar and perusing pollen:

On this occasion I didn't capture any to check the species; there were several involved, but I'm pretty sure that many of them were the solitary ground-nesting bee Lasioglossum calceatum (this one, with its long antennae, looks like a male):

Now, Ragwort can cause problems, being toxic to grazing mammals when consumed in large quantities, and where it poses a genuine risk to these animals it needs to be controlled. But in areas where grazing animals aren't an issue, Ragwort provides a valuable resource for many, many insects, including at least 30 insects and 14 fungi that are entirely dependent on the plant, plus the huge numbers of insects that visit the flowers for pollen and nectar, as shown above.

The controversy over the rights and wrongs of ragwort has raged for years now, and the claims for its harmful effects have often been widely exaggerated. There's plenty of good information about Ragwort available nowadays, not least in DEFRA's own Code of Conduct, so there's not really any excuse for continuing to demonise the plant. Like most entomologists, I remain pleased to see Ragwort in all non-grazing-mammal contexts, and hope to see many more plants covered in the buzzing of contented bees, flies, beetles and butterflies - the sheer exuberance of the bees in the photos above were one of my year's wildlife highlights.

Good sense on Ragwort is available from:

Buglife
Ragwort Facts website
Butterfly Conservation (Scotland) factsheet (pdf download)
Ragwort hysteria blog
DEFRA Code of Conduct (pdf download)

synonymy

2011-11-10T16:02:00.000-08:00

This blog used to be called "sweepnet", a title I was never happy with. Having had a good long break from even attempting to be a blogger, I'm going for a fresh start using another title that I'm not entirely happy with, but irregardless of that am giving it a try. Let's have a prolonged intake of breath for ...

pooter

Various hilarious puns on the subject of sucking suggest themselves, but we're all going to resist, aren't we.

Putting wildlife on the map

2011-04-04T14:00:00.001-07:00

Last week I had the pleasure of teaching my first course for the fantastic Field Studies Council, at their Epping Forest centre. The day seemed to go well, and for me it was great to be out talking about wildlife-watching among the venerable old trees of the Forest.

I've added some of the materials from the course to a new biological recording section of my website, including information on recording, tips for photography and using keys, suggested surveys to try out, links to further resources and some field exercise sheets (downloadable). As ever, feedback welcome to improve what's there and fill in any gaps I've missed.

While reading up for the course I went back to the late Oliver Gilbert's very enjoyable book The Lichen Hunters. Despite not being any sort of lichenologist myself I loved reading about the exploits of Dr Gilbert and his colleagues in tracking down unusual lichens in a range of habitats, from pristine rocks high in the Cairngorms to the 'ancient tarmac' of abandoned WWII airfields. Finding lichens in mountainous habitats requires impressive feats of physical endurance - anyone want to start a campaign for lichen-hunting as an olympic sport?

The book contains one of my favourite biological recording quotes, capturing some of the emotions that come from close contact with wildlife and wild places:

“You go to look for lichens and find in addition familiarity, beauty, companionship, laughter and the warmth of friends.”

New MapMate guidance

2011-01-30T04:57:00.000-08:00

Running the MapMate biological recording database on Windows Vista and Windows 7 caused quite a few problems at first. Things seem to have been sorted out now, and if you run the latest version of MapMate (currently 2.4.0) on Windows 7 you should not encounter any difficulty.

However, problems can still arise with older versions, and depending on the route you've taken to upgrade. I've just posted a new downloadable document on my website that summarises these issues and offers some guidance on resolving the problems and keeping MapMate running happily.

Please let me have any feedback you may have from using the new document - does it make sense to you? Do the recommendations match what has worked for you?

Information sources for invertebrate conservation

2010-03-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

The following resources were compiled for the training course on insect conservation that I led for BBOWT in March 2010. Course participants may also like to join the free mailing list for the Buckinghamshire Invertebrate Group .

Books

Dennis, R.L.H. 2010. A resource-based habitat view for conservation – butterflies in the British landscape. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester. [A densely technical read, but full of insight into the ways in which butterflies interact with their environment.]
Fry, R., and Lonsdale, D. 1991. Habitat conservation for insects – a neglected green issue. Amateur Entomologists’ Society. [Contains lots of good information, but not as easy to use as Kirby’s book, and currently out of print.]
Kirby, P. 2001. Habitat management for Invertebrates – a practical handbook. RSPB, Sandy. [If you only want one book on invertebrate conservation, make sure it is this one!]
Thomas, J., and Lewington, R. 2010. The butterflies of Britain and Ireland (second edition). British Wildlife Publishing, Gillingham. [A fully revised edition of this classic book, with excellent summaries of the latest research into butterflies and their habitats.]

Selected British Wildlife articles

Alexander, K., Butler, J., and Green, T. 2006. The value of different tree and shrub species to wildlife. British Wildlife 18: 18–28.
Brooks, S.J. 1993. Joint Committee for the Conservation of British Invertebrates: Guidelines for invertebrate site surveys. British Wildlife 4: 283–286. [Also reprinted as AES Leaflet 38, Site survey guidelines, see http://is.gd/9HcbG].
Key, R.S. 2000. Bare ground and the conservation of invertebrates. British Wildlife 11: 183–191.

Online resources and downloadable reports
The Amateur Entomologists' Society has an overview of insect conservation and guidance for insect-friendly gardening.

Buglife, the Invertebrate Conservation Trust, has some excellent resources on its website, including online summaries of its report on Managing priority habitats for invertebrates.
See also Buglife’s perspective on Ragwort and its control, and the series of farm habitat leaflets.

Butterfly Conservation has a habitat advice page with lots of downloadable leaflets on particular topics. Many of their other reports can also be downloaded.

The British Dragonfly Society has an online version of its Managing habitats for dragonflies leaflet; also on its website are “Management Fact Files” for the rarer species (look for the “MFF” links).

The Code for insect collecting is available from Invertebrate Link, and some of their other publications are hosted by the AES.

Natural England makes a range of reports and leaflets available, including:
• Organising surveys to determine site quality for invertebrates [short report]
• Grazing Heathland: A guide to impact assessment for insects and reptiles [excellent, although lengthy, review of the factors that should be taken into account before implementing a grazing regime]
• The butterfly handbook: general advice note on mitigating the impacts of roads on butterflies [report]
• Help save the Bumblebee ... get more buzz from your garden [leaflet]
• A review of the invertebrates associated with lowland calcareous grassland
• A review of seepage invertebrates in England
• Brownfield: red data. The values artificial habitats have for uncommon invertebrates
• Surveying terrestrial and freshwater invertebrates for conservation evaluation [technical report, includes description of ISIS system for assessing invertebrate assemblages]

Some of the papers in the Journal of Insect Conservation are freely available online, as are some in Insect Conservation and Diversity.

Conservation statuses for invertebrate species
Information on conservation statuses is dispersed and confusing, but here are the main sources. The nearest thing there is to a complete listing of all species statuses, including invertebrates, is to be found in the JNCC “Conservation Designations Spreadsheet”, a large file (last updated on 23 November 2009).

This includes species listings for BAP priorities, Red Data Books, Nationally Scarce, legally protected and some others. It needs using with care, as the various statuses have been applied at different times (some are now out-of-date) and using varying criteria. The major omission is national statuses for moths, which have never been formally published by JNCC, despite being widely used for many years. The best source for these is: Waring, P., Townsend, M., and Lewington, R. 2009. Field guide to the moths of Great Britain and Ireland. British Wildlife Publishing, Gillingham.

JNCC have very recently published a revised Butterfly Red List for Great Britain, which is not yet incorporated into the above spreadsheet.

Many of the statuses in the above spreadsheet were originally published in the series of Reviews that JNCC have published. These generally include a good summary of what was known about the distribution and ecology of the rarer species at the time (but some are now rather out-of-date). The older, hard-copy reviews are listed; the latest ones can be downloaded.

The British Dragonfly Society has further information on dragonfly and damselfly statuses, including regional priorities.

Identifying invertebrates: downloadable keys

2010-01-29T08:15:00.000-08:00

The previous post listed some identification keys that run online, as more-or-less interactive websites. This post includes some sites that have keys you can download (usually as pdf documents) and print out. See also my bookmarks on delicious.

Various groups
Some excellent materials, many produced by Brian Eversham, are available on the website for The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough. These include keys to insect orders, grasshoppers and bush-crickets, water bugs, ants, beetle families, longhorn beetles and soldier beetles (plus other non-insect groups). NB that most of these are tailored to the Bedfordshire area, and do not necessarily include all UK species (the exception being the soldier-beetle one by Dr Mike Fitton, which does have all species).

Lepidoptera
Various resources, including an identification guide to grass moths (Pyralidae: Crambinae) compiled by Nick Asher, can be downloaded from the Berkshire Moth Group.

Hymenoptera
Some keys to selected groups of bees and ants are available from BWARS.

Diptera
Dipterists Forum has produced some really good downloadable keyes, some of which are available only to DF members; these include a very well-illustrated key to Diptera families, a key to Scathophagidae (dung-flies and allies), both of these by Stuart Ball, and a version of Alan Stubbs key to hoverfly tribes illustrated with photos by Stuart Ball - Dipterists Forum is worth joining just for these, let alone all the other benefits!

Available to anyone is the set of draft keys to craneflies, by Alan Stubbs, and keys to stilt and stalk flies, by Darwyn Sumner.

Coleoptera
The recently established Beetle News has included keys to various small groups of beetles in its first few editions, and they can be downloaded from the Amateur Entomologists' Society.

Field Studies Council
This listing from the FSC includes many of their published keys, available to purchase, but also some older papers that are free to download, including Unwin's key to Diptera families, and the now slightly out-of-date key to slugs by Cameron, Eversham and Jackson.

Identifying invertebrates: online keys

2010-01-29T07:01:00.000-08:00

On Saturday 30 January, Roger Hawkins and I are running a workshop for the BENHS on using keys for insect identification. We'll mostly be working with published hard-copy keys, but we'll include some online keys as well. Below are some examples for various invertebrate groups.

[Migrant Hawker photo by Jonathan Silvertown, annotated by Martin Harvey]

I must admit that I don't yet make much use of online keys. This is partly because I'm fortunate in having a good range of printed keys available to me, and I'm sure it's also partly a case of 'sticking with what I know' rather than spending time learning the online ones (all keys require time spent on them to get familiar with their particular approach). However, I think there are still some problems with online keys, from the practical one of having to have a computer within easy view of your specimen or microscope, to more intrinsic issues about the ease of flicking through a book to compare different sections, as opposed to having to switch between different windows on a computer.

However, online keys are likely to become more widespread and will no doubt get better as time goes on, just as printed ones have (and continue to do so), and no doubt the two will be seen as complementary rather than an either/or choice.

See below for some online keys to try out. For a longer list (including plants and other groups as well as invertebrates) see my bookmarks on delicious, and let me know if there are any other good keys out there, or any thoughts you have on using online keys. A post on downloadable keys will follow.

Various groups
The most comprehensive set of online keys that I am aware of is the DELTA Intkey system. This requires you to download some software onto your computer, after which you can either download various individual keys, or run them from the web.

At the moment there is quite a wide range of keys available within this system, for various taxonomic groups (not just invertebrates) and different parts of the world, but for UK insect purposes they include:

Orders of insects, families of Coleoptera, families of Diptera, genera of Ephemeroptera, families of Hemiptera, families of Hymenoptera, families of Lepidoptera, genera of butterflies, genera of Geometridae, genera of Noctuidae, species of Phyllonorycter, species of Odonata, genera of Orthoptera, families of Trichoptera.

These are multi-access keys so that you can answer the set of questions in any sequence, and need only answer the ones you're confident of - the system will endeavour to give you a best match of one or more names for your specimen. I've made most use of the family keys for Coleoptera and Diptera, but I have to admit they've not proved as helpful as I hoped, and I still tend to return to paper-based single-access (dichotomous) keys for backup. But it is always good to have additional keys available for comparison, and no doubt if I used them more I'd get more used to their idiosyncrasies and perhaps find them more helpful.

There are some draft online keys available on iSpot (part of OPAL), including a simple 'key to minibeasts' - this part of iSpot is still under development, and there'll be more to come.

Coleoptera
The Watford Coleoptera Group (click on "ID aids") are making a range of identification aids available, some in the form of keys, some as notes on particular species or groups of species.

Hymenoptera
[added on 10 February 2010]
The Natural History Museum provides a very useful key to bumblebees.

Diptera
These online keys to various families of Diptera are managed by Paul Beuk, who also runs the excellent Diptera.info. You may need to register on Diptera.info to get full access to the keys. Some of these keys are online versions of existing printed keys, others are new (e.g. includes the best key I'm aware of for genus Sylvicola in family Anisopodidae).

Not a key, but some very helpful support for keys is provided by the Anatomical Atlas of Flies, from CSIRO in Australia. This is a truly excellent web implementation of a morphology diagram and glossary of names for parts of flies, using detailed close-ups of real insect specimens. But it needs a good broadband connection to work at any speed!

Mark van Veen's Faunist is a Dutch site with keys to various families of Diptera, plus Odonata, Orthoptera and sea-shells. The latter three are in Dutch only, but most of the Diptera keys are in English. They are well-illustrated and easy to use, and I think cover most of the British species in the families included. Plenty of information about the species is given (but remember that this refers to the fauna in Holland, which will include additional species and different habitats/behaviours compared to the UK).

Some of these keys to robber-flies (Asilidae) by Fritz Geller-Grimm are applicable to the UK (others cover various parts of the world).

For those flies with larvae that produce leaf-mines (largely Agromyzidae, plus a few Anthomyiidae etc.) there are keys based on the foodplant on the excellent UK Fly Mines site.

Lepidoptera
Similarly, for leaf-mines of Lepidoptera try Barry Dickerson's online key, on the British Leafminers website. This is largely based on volumes 1 and 2 of "The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland", but with some additions and revisions. A very useful resource (but be aware of all the non-lepidopterous insects that also make leaf-mines, most of which are listed, but not keyed, elsewhere on the site).

Butterfly Conservation/Moths Count provide a simple key to day-flying moths.

Odonata
There is a good identification key to Irish dragonflies and damselflies, but it covers males only, and not all UK species are included.

Mollusca
The Conchological Society provide some online keys and other identification notes for various groups of snails and slugs.

Arachnida
This German website has a key to European spider families.

OpenLearn - free courses from the Open University

2010-01-28T13:33:00.000-08:00

[... mutters usual apology about lack of blogging for ages ...]

I've been delving in to the huge range of OpenLearn courses that the Open University makes available for anyone to try for free - that is, for no money whatsoever! There's quite a range of topics available, at various levels. They're done on-line, and you don't get any points or qualifications from doing them, but they provide an excellent way of getting an idea of what OU study is like, as well as being a fantastic source of information.

You can browse from the main subject areas, or see the full list of courses. Here are a few that caught my eye from the perspective of wildlife, conservation and computing:

Science and nature

Computers

Living with the internet: keeping it safe
Living with the Internet: online shopping
An introduction to data and information [including intro to web browsers]
ICTs in everyday life

If you enjoy any of these, and would like to go on to do an assessed course, have a look at Neighbourhood Nature - okay, I'm a bit biased as this is the course that links to the iSpot project, but it really is a good course if you're looking for an introduction to studying wildlife.

iSpot features moth new to Britain

2009-10-13T03:04:00.000-07:00

The OPAL iSpot project (see previous post) has had an exciting few days - a moth, found by six-year-old Katie Dobbins in Berkshire, was posted on iSpot, and has turned out to be a species not recorded in Britain before: Pryeria sinica, the Euonymus Leaf-notcher. This is native to Asia but has been found in a couple of places in the States since 2001.

Further details and more photos are on the Berkshire Moth Group website.

Thanks to Katie Dobbins for getting her dad to report the moth, and to Martin Honey of the Natural History Museum for his help in confirming its identity. Full details will be published as soon as possible, and the specimen is being passed on to the NHM.

This may well be just a one-off importation with plants or packaging, but it's emerged via the Back Garden Moths forum that the Euonymus Leaf-notcher was also seen in Spain last June, the only other record for Europe that we've heard of (so far!).

The Open University press office have made good use of the story and so far it's been picked up by the Express, Mail and Mirror. As usual the papers have their own perspective on this, and according to taste the moth is either the "UK's rarest moth" or the next major pest outbreak.

All good fun, and hopefully Katie has enjoyed her encounters with biodiversity and the media!

New atlas of bees, wasps and ants

2009-10-13T01:38:00.000-07:00

The latest atlas in the set being published by BWARS arrived a week or two ago:
Edwards, R., and Roy, H. (eds) 2009. Provisional atlas of aculeate Hymenoptera of Britain and Ireland Part 7. Wallingford: Biological Records Centre.

Part 7 of this atlas includes maps for a further 58 species, with brief species accounts summarising the distribution, ecology and conservation status. Following the BWARS plan, part 7 contains a mix of ants, wasps and bees, including nine of the small (and hard to identify) parasitic jewel wasps in genus Chrysis, seven of the solitary wasps in genus Crossocerus, a range of solitary bees and six bumblebees (genus Bombus).

The latter group includes an account of Bombus cullumanus, last recorded in Britain in 1941, in Berkshire, and now considered extinct following recent surveys of all the sites from which it was previously known. By contrast, the map for Bombus hypnorum shows how far this species has spread since it colonised Britain in 2001.

There is a useful summary of the problems of distinguishing workers of Bombus terrestris from those of Bombus lucorum (queens and males can be separated relatively easily, although for queens the situation is becoming more difficult as colonies of the continental, white-tailed, race of Bombus terrestris have been imported for commercial use); and of the status of Bombus lucorum itself, which has been shown to be an aggregate of three very similar species: B. lucorum sensu stricto, B. magnus and B. cryptarum.

The dot maps in part 7 show the most recent records as black dots for the period 1970 to 2007 (or so it says on page 9, but I think at least some of the maps include records after 2007 - certainly that for Bombus hypnorum does). While this maintains consistency with the maps in the previous parts of the atlas, it does not enable more recent changes in distribution to be shown. For example, it would have been good to see the recent expansion of range in species such as the parasitic bee Sphecodes niger shown more clearly on the maps.

One reason for producing atlases, and one of the reasons why mambers of BWARS work so hard to collate the records, is to monitor changes in species and look out for any worrying declines, and in part 7 there several examples of just this. For instance, the closely related solitary bees Andrena rosae and A. stragulata have not previously been listed as scarce or declining, but these maps show that there is cause for concern with few recent records.

The BWARS data for these species (but not the species accounts) can be seen on the NBN Gateway - for example, here is the map for Specodes niger.

iSpot - helping people learn about wildlife

2009-10-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

iSpot was launched last summer: "iSpot is the place to learn more about wildlife and to share your interest with a friendly community. Take a look at the latest spots, start your own album of observations, join a group and get help identifying what you have seen."

iSpot has been developed by the Open University as part of the Open Air Laboratories project (OPAL), with funding from the Big Lottery Fund. I've been part of the team working on it for the last year or so.

Here's an introduction to what iSpot is all about:

Introducing iSpot - helping people learn about wildlife

View more presentations from Martin Harvey.

So far we have over 1,000 registered users on the site, including a healthy mix of beginners and more experienced naturalists, all busy helping each other identify what they've seen. One thing we're trying to encourage on the site is for people to explain why a species is that particular species, not just give its name. Of course, not all species can be identified from photos or descriptions, and the site allows this to be shown clearly where necessary.

Several national and local recording schemes have representatives active on the site, and they are being 'badged' with a logo next to their user name so that every time they are active on the site a link is given back to their society's website. If you're involved with a recording scheme or society and would like to find out more about this please do contact iSpot.

MapMate: new user queries available

2009-08-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

For MapMate users, I've added a few new queries to my MapMate resources page (see the SQL for user queries heading on that page):

Information on creating queries that combine synonyms into the latest version of the name
Query to update the date in a block of records
Query to export data from MapMate in the format required to send it to the NBN Gateway (thanks to Graham French for help with this one)

more moths and media

2009-06-06T03:54:00.000-07:00

The Moths and Media talk (see below and below) gets another outing on Monday 8 June, 7,45pm, for Wycombe Wildlife Group - all welcome if you're within reach of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Details are here.

links from Moths and the Media talk

2009-05-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here are the links to many of the websites referred to in the "Moths and the Media" talk I gave in Newbury on 19 May 2009, for Butterfly Conservation and BBOWT, and again for Moths Count at the South Wales Moth Recorders’ Gathering, September 2009.

Many of the links, including most of the 'serious' mothing identification sites and online resources for moth recorders, have already been listed in my previous post on this subject and aren't repeated here. The ones that are new:

Additional mothing sites

Berkshire Moth Group
Butterfly Conservation moth pages (including key to day-flying moths)
BC Upper Thames Branch moth sightings (up-to-date news of what's been seen in Berks, Bucks and Oxon)
Netherlands Microlepidoptera (Dutch text, excellent photos)
Moths aren't scary they rock! (moth supporters on Facebook)

Online mapping and grid references

Where's the path - OS maps and Google aerial photos side-by-side (this site has recently moved URL)
Grab a grid reference - excellent innovation from Keith Balmer for Bedfordshire Natural History Society, displays grid reference squares at various resolutions over Google maps and aerials (works throughout UK)

Moth-related blogs (a small and fairly random selection from among many)

Garden Critters (moths and other wildlife from Tilehurst, Berkshire)
Martin's Moths (i.e. Martin Wainwright of the Guardian)
Calderdale Moths, Butterflies and Dragonflies
Thornton Moth Man (complete with great illustration of a moth-er in action)
St Margaret's at Cliffe Photo Diary (various wildlife including moths)
North American Moths Backyard Inventory (interesting comparison with mothing in the UK)

Moth miscellany

Rachel talks to a moth (Big Brother 2008)
Recycled wool anti-moth sachets (from Instructables website)
Make your own moths from felt
Dr Who scenes created by moths (actually a well-reported story from Daily Mail)
Vampire moths (this story got widely and rather sensationally reported, but there is some interesting science behind it)
The Moth Generator - using magnetic moths to produce electricity (fun but not terribly practical concept!)
Moths mimicking spiders
Grizzly Bears feed on moths

funding for work experience with invertebrates and mammals

2009-05-19T02:11:00.000-07:00

The People's Trust for Endangered Species is awarding funding for students/recent graduates who wish to gain experience by taking up an internship with conservation or research organisations - details available here.

For work with invertebrates, two internships are available this year, deadline for applications is 15 June 2009. Mammal internships have been allocated for 2009 but will be available again in 2010 (I see that there are seven mammal internships available, which is a bit unbalanced given the relative number of species to choose from, but far be it from me to criticise funding for worthwhile causes!).

(I'm indebted to the Amateur Entomologists' Society for information on these awards, via the AES Twitter feed.)

Award for David Lonsdale

2009-05-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

I'm delighted to hear that David Lonsdale has been awarded this year's Marsh Award for Insect Conservation. Many years ago I volunteered as Conservation Officer for the Amateur Entomologists' Society, under David's guidance, and have fond memories of his friendly supervision, his expert and detailed knowledge, and his untiring dedication to the cause of conserving invertebrates. Strong memories also of his beady eye for any deviations from good English and scientific accuracy!

David is still active within the AES, editing their Invertebrate Conservation News among other activities, and also supports the Ancient Tree Forum and Buglife, among others. He (along with Reg Fry) was instrumental in getting the first book published on insect conservation in the UK, the AES's "Habitat Conservation for Invertebrates - A Neglected Green Issue" (1991).

This award for David is thoroughly well-deserved, congratulations, and long may his inspiring work continue.

moths and ... contemporary music

2009-05-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

In a former life I spent ten years as a professional musician (trombonist and composer), specialising in the further outreaches of contemporary classical music. The kind of stuff that gets dismissed as "squeeky-gate". It's what I've enjoyed listening to since I was a teenager.

My 'favourite composer' all this time has been Harrison Birtwistle, who writes music that is joyously, gratuitously dissonant and beautiful. As well as performing his music whenever I got the chance, I was a full-on fan, collecting his printed music and getting him to sign it for me.

There is definitely an elemental feel to his music, some of which is explicitly based around the idea of landscapes (Silbury Air being a prime example), and it has always felt in keeping with my love for the natural world. But I didn't realise until I read it in last Saturday's Guardian that I share another interest with Birtwistle, namely a fascination with moths. Apparently, Birtwistle has collected moths since he was 13:

Moths are magical - you can never see them until you trap them. I have an idea to write a requiem for all the species of moth that are extinct, using their Latin names.

From almost anyone else that would sound an unpromising idea for a piece of music, but I bet Birtwistle could make something of it. Can't wait to find out what.

[Photograph of Silbury Hill by Greg O'Beirne]

Evolving snails: launch of Evolution Megalab

2009-03-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

Continuing today's snail theme, today is the official launch of the Evolution Megalab, a project being run by the Open University where people can contribute to evolution research by surveying the Brown-lipped Banded Snail Cepaea nemoralis. There's been quite a lot of publicity about it today, and it is part of the OU's celebration of Darwin 200.

Anyone can take part in the survey, and the Megalab site has full instructions, along with associated videos (see below) and an identification quiz you can take to rate yourself as a Cepaea identifier. Cepaea snails have a long history as evolutionary study subjects, and the Megalab gives you the chance to add to this body of work. You can also see what historical records are held for your area.

For those with mixed feelings about snails, there is no need to hate Cepaea snails! They prefer dead or decaying vegetation and although they can be common in gardens they don't do much if any damage.

Snail identification: new edition of FSC key

2009-03-30T05:38:00.000-07:00

Robert Cameron's excellent Key for the identification of Land Snails in the British Isles was published by the Field Studies Council in 2003, and a new edition came out towards the end of 2008. I was unable to resist getting the new one, despite being an infrequent recorder of snails who was quite happy with the old one! Was it worth it?

The new edition is not very different (e.g. 84 pages as opposed to the original's 82, and this has only changed due to the inclusion of a few new references), but it does contain four additional species, some corrections and some updates to the nomenclature (scientific names), quite a few of which have changed. The four new species are:

Myosotella denticulata. This is very similar to M. myosotis, and they are both species of tidal standlines and edges of saltmarshes. Both key out at the same place, and Cameron doesn't attempt to distinguish the two fully. Further information on separating these species is available in Roy Anderson's 2008 checklist of UK non-marine Mollusca, which can be downloaded from the Conchological Society.
Balea heydeni. This has been split from the similar B. perversa, and it seems that the 'new' species B. heydeni is actually the commoner of the two in Britain and Ireland, so previous records of B. perversa will have to be classed as an aggregate of the two species unless they can be checked. Balea spp. can be found on trees and rocks (the first edition of the key rather intriguingly says that B. perversa [agg.] is often found in places with few other snails, but this descriptive text has been sacrificed for lack of space in the second edition).
Papillifera bidens. A Mediterranean species that has been introduced into Britain; the only confirmed records so far are from a National Trust property in Buckinghamshire. Superficially similar to other clausiliid snails but with a distinctive dark band and white spots running round the shell.
Cernuella aginnica. Another introduced species that has so far been found only in Kent, and is not thought to be widespread. It is very similar to the common C. virgata, and requires dissection to confirm (features described but not illustrated in the key).

The only one of these that people living away from the coast are likely to encounter is Balea heydeni, so if you already have the first edition you should be quite safe to continue using it. But if you're keen to watch out for the latest introductions then the second edition is essential.

And if you don't have the key at all I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in snails - it is a thorough and careful key, but very well laid out and easy for a beginner to get to grips with. I particularly like Robert Cameron's introduction to using the key, which starts:

"Experience has shown that there are two extremes in reactions to keys. One is the expectation that a good key should lead simply to the right answer, even in the hands of a beginner. The other, sometimes expressed by experts, is that keys never work well, and that only face-to-face tuition by an expert works properly. The first view leads to frustration, or even despar. The second can have the effect of making identification an arcance professional preserve."

Robert goes on to chart a middle course between these extremes, providing guidance on how to get the best out of using a key, and what limitations have to be borne in mind. He demonstrates this advice well in his own key.

OPAL soil and earthworm survey

2009-03-05T03:00:00.001-08:00

The work I'm currently doing at the Open University's Biodiversity Observatory is part of a much bigger project called Open Air Laboratories (OPAL). The aim is to encourage more people to find out about their environment, get involved with the science associated with environmental issues, and learn more about wildlife and conservation.

One of the (many!) activities that OPAL is promoting is a series of public participation surveys, and the first of these is now up and running. It is devoted to soils and earthworms. The survey asks you to select a suitable site, do some simple tests to assess the nature of the soil, and find and identify a range of common earthworm species. You'll need to do a small amount of digging! The results are posted online and can then be seen on the survey map (some are appearing already).

In terms of biological recording, earthworms have been rather neglected in this country, perhaps surprisingly given our penchant for recording other rather obscure invertebrate groups, and at the moment there is no recording scheme nor published atlas for earthworms. The OPAL survey provides a well-illustrated Field Studies Council key to 12 common species of earthworm (download from the OPAL links given above), but if you want to take things further and look at the full range of species the Natural History Museum is seeking volunteers to undertake full surveys of worms in natural habitats. Training in the use of the full key by Sims and Gerard (1999, Synopses of the British Fauna, [currently out of print] UPDATE: now back in print) will be given. For further details of this, contact:
Dr David Jones, Soil Biodiversity Research Group, Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD. 020 7942 5706 or dtj [AT] nhm.ac.uk

While we're on the subject, there's a lot of good information on earthworms at the UCLAN Earthworm Research Group, and some fun video footage of Lumbricus terrestris at ARKive.

Earthwormwww.osfimages.com

invertebrate recording schemes - call for atlas records

2009-02-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

Three national recording schemes are currently collating records for their forthcoming national atlases, and have deadlines fast approaching. I managed to get myself sufficiently organised today to send off my records, so am feeling smug, and if anyone else has data to contribute I'm sure it would be very welcome.

Ladybird recording scheme: atlas due for publication in 2010, records accepted up until "spring 2009" (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) - if you can recognise a Seven-spot Ladybird you can contribute to this!
The Larger Brachycera recording scheme covers several families of Diptera (flies), including soldier-flies, horse-flies, bees-flies and a few others. Records needed "as soon as possible".
The Centipede (Chilopoda) recording scheme also has an atlas in the pipeline - not sure of the timescale, but again all records are requested. Centipedes are not the easiest creatures to identify, but there is a very good recent Field Studies Council key to them, by recording scheme organiser Tony Barber.

Geophilus carpophagus

analysing county moth datasets

2009-02-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

County moth datasets tend to be large and 'messy' affairs - messy in the sense that they are large aggregations of data from a variety of sources, collected using a variety of methods. Some people will run a mercury vapour trap all night long in their garden, several times a week; others will run an occasional actinic trap for a few hours on a nature reserve; others will just send in a few sightings of moths they've found by day. Is it possible to draw any overall conclusions about which moths are increasing or decreasing from this mass/mess of data?

In an attempt to look at this for the Berkshire moth database, I've set up some user queries for use in MapMate that compare numbers of records and of individuals of particular species against total numbers for the year. Full details and a download of the queries are here on my kitenet website. Here are the resulting graphs for Mottled Rustic, currently doing very poorly in Berkshire:

moths on the web - news update

2009-02-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

Positioned somewhere on the sublime–ridiculous scale ...

Moths provide inspiration for green energy: the structure of moths' eyes enables them to 'harvest' light extremely efficiently, and this is providing a model for constructing more effective solar cells
This is weird and possibly sinister, but US Defense researchers are trying to produce living insects with electronic implants so that they be controlled and directed - Cyborg moths
Man finds moth in pre-washed, pre-packed salad shocker (well, at least it was a clean moth - what would be most appropriate in a salad, Mamestra brassicae?, Cucullia lactucae?)
Is it a batman, is it a superman, no, it's ... Killer Moth

Not being too familiar with Killer Moth I consulted this review, "What is there to say about Killer Moth? He’s probably second only to Kite-Man as Batman’s goofiest foe ... Killer Moth is a fairly standard figure, but his wings push his rating up a little higher."

MapMate: Reset Sync option

2009-02-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

For MapMate users: just added "What to do if you have a problem syncing records" to my website. This explains how to use the "Reset Sync" option so that you resend all your records in order to ensure that none have been missed, e.g. if a sync file has got lost or corrupted.

(Won't mean much to you if you don't use MapMate!)

Ask your MP to support Butterfly Conservation

2009-02-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

Butterfly Conservation are asking for help to ensure all MPs are aware of an Early Day Motion highlighting butterfly declines:

Members of Parliament have registered their alarm at the decline in butterfly numbers and said a big thank you to all the volunteers who participate in UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.

More than 50 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion tabled by the MP Bob Russell, who represents Colchester and is a long-time Butterfly Conservation member.

It states that:

"This House registers its deep concern at the decline in the butterfly population, with numbers reported by the charity Butterfly Conservation to be at their lowest for 25 years, with the small tortoiseshell showing the biggest decline of 81 per cent; congratulates the thousands of volunteers who each year provide information for the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme operated by Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology; welcomes the comments of Sir David Attenborough, President of Butterfly Conservation, who is promoting an appeal to raise funds for the charity's Stop Extinction Appeal; and calls on the Government to promote cross-departmental policies to assist in safeguarding Britain's butterflies"

If you think this EDM should be supported, please check Early Day Motion 8 to see if your MP has signed, and if they haven't ask them to do so.

A sample letter to MPs can be found via Upper Thames Branch of Butterfly Conservation

Find out who your MP is here

New key to plants

2009-02-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

The long-awaited new "Vegetative Key to the British Flora" (by John Poland and Eric Clement) is nearing completion. BSBI are now advertising a pre-publication offer: if you order before the 17th April it will cost £20 inclusive, whereafter it will cost £25 plus p&p.

You can download a flyer for the book from the BSBI website (see the top-right-hand corner of the site).

The authors claim that (with experience) you'll be able to identify most plants within 60 seconds! (personally I'd be happy if I could get somewhere near identifying most plants within 60 hours ...)

revised MapMate user queries

2009-02-01T16:07:00.001-08:00

Ages ago I circulated a set of MapMate user queries to extend the standard "Browse all records" query with extra details, including determiner, national status for rare species, some higher taxon classifications, etc.

I was recently asked to revise these queries, updating and slightly extending them. The revised versions can be downloaded here.

(see the fourth bullet point "SQL text (.txt file) for custom User Queries to browse records with additional details")

web resources for moth recorders

2009-01-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

I've been invited by Moths Count to give a presentation at the English moth recorders conference (Birmingham, 31 January 2009) on how moth recorders are using the web. The presentation itself (with audio now available again) can be seen below, and below that are links to the sites mentioned in the presentation. This is by no means a complete set of useful moth websites, but it does pick out some that I think are really good examples, and especially useful to moth recorders (and if you want more here's my full list of Lepidoptera-related links.)

Moth recording resources on the web

View more presentations from Martin Harvey. (tags: wildlife_recording moths)

Information and photos
Perhaps the most familiar site for information and photos of adult moths is UKmoths. For early stages, UKleps has an astonishing set of photos, covering the full life cycle for many species. British leafminers gives comprehensive information on that group of moths (and see also British insect miners, which covers non-Lepidopterous leaf-mines as well). For those moths that need dissection to be identified see the Lepidoptera dissection group.

Egroups and forums
The best-known and longest established egroups are on Yahoo: UKmoths, UKmicromoths, the migrant recorders network and UKleps. There are an increasing number of web-based wildlife discussion forums as well, many of which include moths. One of the most popular of these is Wild About Britain, with over 25,000 registered members. You can also discuss moths on Facebook via Moths aren't scary they rock!!

Making identification easier
Ideas for improving identification resources on the web include making it easy to compare similar species; making it possible to annotate images online; and encouraging better labelling of photos and of the 'determinations' (identifications) associated with them (e.g. documenting who has identified them and when).

The Suffolk Moth Group has an excellent feature on its species pages, which allows you to compare similar species - you can compare photos, flight periods, habitats etc. (example species account). Kuvia ja havaintoja perhosista (moths in Finland) covers some moth species in detail (including carpets and pugs), and has a great feature where you can click on the moth photos and each opens up in its own window, making it easy to arrange and compare them side-by-side.

One of my current jobs is with the iSpot website, part of the OPAL project at the Open University. iSpot aims to connect beginner naturalists with a supportive community of experts and fellow enthusiasts. If you're knowledgeable about moths or wildlife, can you spare some time to help others learn about what they've seen? And if you're involved with a recording scheme or society then get in touch to find out how you can be 'badged' on iSpot, with links through to your own website.

Other resources
For maps and grid references (including 1940s maps and aerial photos) try the superb Where's the Path (but you may need to catch it early in the morning as Ordnance Survey restrict the number of map views per day). The BSBI's Herbaria at Home project has a tool for checking which vice-county a grid reference of place name falls in.

For researching associations between plants and moths (and other insects) the Biological Records Centre has put its Database of Insects and their Foodplants online. And try the Suffolk Moth Group again for the Field Tips - month-by-month info on what moths (especially caterpillars) can be found where.

Predictive mothing
Several county websites have set up a "what's flying tonight" feature, using the county records to show which species are most likely to be seen (as adults) on any date. See versions for Norfolk, Suffolk and Somerset (I find they are useful even if you live a long way from these counties).

New developments
One of the most innovative moth websites is Norfolk Moths. Species info, distribution maps, online recording and many other features, including Mobile Moths, which reformats all this mass of data so that it can be accessed via mobile devices such as iPhones and Blackberries. You can also follow Norfolk Moths on Twitter.

Don't forget to turn the computer off and do some mothing sometimes as well!

Using SlideShare for MapMate presentation

2008-12-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

I've used the MapMate species recording database for about seven years now, both at home and in my jobs, and I've run a number of training workshops for people wanting to use this program. I've just been experimenting with putting up my 'MapMate overview' presentation onto SlideShare. The procedure I used was:

Create a powerpoint presentation
Record a commentary to go with it - I recorded mine in Powerpoint 2007, but this was a bit of a pain, and I ended up having to edit the commentary using the WavePad Sound Editor (a great free download), so will record it separately next time
Upload the presentation to SlideShare
Upload the audio to a file store (I used Internet Archive)
Use SlideShare's slidecast tools to link the audio to the slides

The result:

MapMate wildlife recording database

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: wildlife recording)

(NB that this presentation is now available for others to use under a Creative Commons Share Alike licence)

new web pages on insect identification

2008-12-01T16:24:00.000-08:00

Not found time for blogging lately, but have just added a coupe of pages to my website, on insect identification resources in general, and Coleoptera in particular. Have a look at the pages and let me know if you have any additional suggestions for useful information on these subjects.

live insects under the microscope

2008-10-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

I've been trying out an 'insect restrainer' for examining live insects (and arachnids) under the microscope, and am pleased with the results. The restrainer is made from the top half of a glass-topped collecting tin, and a circle of plastazote cut to the same size:

For spiders and some types of insect, the restrainer allows them to be held firmly, but gently, while under the 'scope for identification and photography. They can then be released, unharmed as far as I can tell. Examples - the big Tegenaria house spiders need close examination of the male palps for identification, and here is Tegenaria gigantea in the restrainer:

And here is the underside of the harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis - the essential character for confirming females of this one is the tip of the operculum, on the underside - easy to do, but only if the creature will lie still, and upside-down, under the microscope or hand-lens:

And a weevil, Aspidapion aeneum, which feeds on Hollyhocks in my garden. For this one you need to see the furrow on the top of the head, between the eyes:

The restrainer makes it quick and easy to check IDs for some species. The photos are not the best quality (they're taken with a fairly low-spec Canon Ixus 900ti, through the microscope and through the glass lid of the restrainer), but they do make it possible to keep a record of the ID features without having to keep a specimen every time.

new books

2008-10-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

Had an enjoyable day at the AES Exhibition last weekend, great to catch up with loads of people I haven't seen for ages. Some new books out too, including:

The latest (vol. 5 part 17c) in Mike Morris's series of weevil keys for the Royal Ent Soc. These keys are becoming much more nicely laid-out and user-friendly since the Field Studies Council started producing them for the RES, and this new key is a great improvement over the keys in Joy, which is probably all most of us have had access to up till now. However, they're still a challenging group, and not for the first time in this set of keys I hit a problem with a specimen that didn't really fit the keys. Maybe it's me getting it wrong of course, but I'll need to check it next time I'm near a museum.
And also the latest in the series of Surrey wildlife atlases, this time on bees, by David Baldock. This covers all the solitary and social bees recorded in the county, and as well as the usual dot maps there are informative species accounts, a very welcome new key to bee genera (by Graham Collins), and a set of 48 superb colour plates. Highly recommended, available from Surrey Wildlife Trust.
A new AES book on the larger water beetles, by Peter Sutton. Nicely written text full of anecdotes and clearly showing the author's enthusiasm for this group of beetles. Keys to the larger species and lots of background information.

new species: moth and fly

2008-10-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

The latest edition (vol. 120(5), Sep/Oct 2008) of the Ent Rec has two papers describing new species for the British Isles:

the Raspberry Clearwing moth, Pennisetia hylaeiformis (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), which has larvae that develop in various species and cultivars of raspberry, and has been found in south Cambridgeshire and north Hertfordshire so far, but no reason why it couldn't be found in Berkshire as well.
Pherbellia stackelbergi, a snail-killing fly (Diptera: Sciomyzidae) so far found only in Ireland, but rather similar to P. brunnipes which has records scattered across the UK.

new species of bug

2008-10-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

A few days ago Ian Thirlwell sent me this photo of a large (18mm long) bug for identification. Ian had found next to his moth-trap in Portsmouth, and rather spectacular it looked too. It is Leptoglossus occidentalis, a species that seems to be turning up all of a sudden on the south coast, with further examples reported at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildhastings/2813195575/

and:
http://www.dungenessbirdobs.org.uk/latestins22008.html

The first British record that I can find was in Weymouth in 2007, see page 2 of:
http://www.hetnews.org.uk/pdfs/Issue%2010_Autumn%202007_820Kb.pdf

Ian's may be the 6th or so British record, and it is a nice-looking bug, but it may also be the latest invasive pest species to reach our shores, so good and bad news I think.

Update (18 October): there's more news of this bug at:
http://www.britishbugs.org.uk/index.html

Now being seen inland as well.

reactions to insects

2008-10-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Spent today manning the Bucks Invertebrate Group stall at a family wildlife fun day for Bucks County Museum. I used a video microscope to show off insect (plus spider, centipede etc.) specimens (alive and dead), plus some quizzes and games.

Most people, and nearly all the kids, were fascinated by the insects under the microscope, but the quiz produced a range of responses. I asked people to sort a selection of insect photos into three categories: good to have in a garden ("friends"), bad to have in a garden ("foes"), or not sure/neither good nor bad. The photos included a range of species, from Garden Snail and Large White butterfly caterpillars to hoverfly and lacewing, bees and wasps, etc. I reckoned that the snail and caterpillars could reasonably be classed as "foes", but the others were neutral or good. Perhaps unsurprisingly many people (adults and children) tended to put more into the "foes" category. Wasp, ant, and often the bees as well, went straight into "foes", presumably as people couldn't get past the fact that they can sting (if you annoy them). And not at all surprisingly the lacewing and hoverfly larvae (see photo) went straight into "foes" on the grounds that people didn't know what they were and therefore assumed they must be bad.

An answer sheet was provided with some information about what the photographed insects actually did for a living, and this seemed to achieve its task of giving people a little more insight into the benefits of having insects around. But still couldn't persuade everyone that wasps were a good thing. One adult demanded to know what was the "purpose" of wasps, what good did they do, with the implication that things didn't really have a right to exist if they didn't benefit humans. However, she did eventually agree with me that perhaps other creatures had a right to live on their own terms.

cricket scores

2008-10-04T13:16:00.001-07:00

Some good news from the BBC: the survival of the Scaly Cricket at Branscombe Beach.

(sorry about the title for this post)

Peppered Moth extinction - let's celebrate!

2008-10-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying Martin Wainwright's blog (Martin's Moths) - lots of mothy goodness but also examples and anecdotes about how moths are perceived in a wider cultural context. Martin's day job is as northern editor for the Guardian, and his latest blog post links to one of his articles, where he correlates the news that more people are living to a hundred with the decline in the melanic form of the Peppered Moth. It's a fascinating read, and full marks to Martin for getting some proper moth science into a national newspaper article.

However, the language used implies that the decline of the melanic Peppered Moth might be something to worry about - Martin's article says that the decline "looks terminal" and talks of "extinction" of the melanic form, and I've noticed similar language in other articles. I'm not sure what it means to say that a genetic variety of a moth is extinct - presumably the form could reappear if conditions change again (e.g. if sooty pollution were to return)? And in any case, the loss of this form is all good news isn't it - the reduction in this form of pollution is surely a success story? And the Peppered Moth as a species is still doing okay, thankfully.

There's plenty of actual species that are declining fast, but the evolution of Peppered Moth forms is something to celebrate for once!

to Otmoor for insects

2008-09-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon was spent in brilliant sunshine at the RSPB's Otmoor reserve, for a BENHS field trip. Great to feel the warmth of the sun after the grey summer. The evening's mothing was cooler - see photo of moth-trap in the mist.

Some leisurely bug-hunting produced a range of craneflies, snail-killing flies and other odds and ends. One of the really good things about going on group field trips is that you can see so much more thanks to others sharing their interests and knowledge, and my colleagues pointed out birds including lots of Snipe, a Barn Owl, Marsh Harrier and Cetti's Warbler. A small number of moths braved the evening chill, including reedbed resident the Large Wainscot (photo).

The meeting was led by Paul Waring, whose enthusiasm is matched only by his expertise. Although we didn't catch many moths, and those we did were nothing unusual, Paul still managed to give the impression that he was immensely pleased to see each species and each person he encountered. There's a lot to be said for enthusiasm.

A final surprise when packing up the following morning was a bat roosting in an outbuilding - it hadn't been there the evening before so must have flown in while we were mothing. Not yet sure of the species, but always a thrill to see.