Tardigrades have been found everywhere in Earth’s biosphere, from the highest mountaintops to the deepest sea and from tropical rainforests to the Antarctic. There are sure to be some, somewhere, in the reserve’s ponds, going quietly about their business.
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One of our New Year’s resolutions is to make regular trawls through the depths of our extensive species lists in order to introduce you to some of the less visible (and sometimes much less fluffy) of the reserve’s inhabitants.
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In the world of invertebrates, black and yellow signals danger. It says to predators: I am poisonous or I will bite you.
Read on to discover more:
In the UK the populations of our more common butterflies have fallen by 46% in the last 50 years while the rarer species have declined by 77%. We have lost 60% of our flying insects in just 20 years. We have entirely lost 13 species of our native bees since the 1970s and fully expect more to follow.
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The reserve’s ivy flowers between September and November; each plant’s flowering season is quite short but a succession of plants flowers all through the autumn. The flowers are small, green and yellow, and so insignificant-looking that many people don’t realise that that they are flowers at all.
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The nighttime temperature is dropping and soon we will see the first frosts. The reserve’s invertebrates are preparing for hibernation.
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This is a common drone fly (Eristalis tenax), named for its mimicry of a male honeybee. It was first identified in the reserve in 2019.
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By the end of the summer, the workers in a wasp nest will have finished raising and feeding the new queen larvae. The larvae have spun caps over their cells and begun the process of pupation. This indicates a change for the nest.
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There are forty one species of Cantharidae in Britain and almost all go by the common names of soldier or sailor beetle.
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Slugs are no longer to be classed as garden pests by the Royal Horticultural Society.
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Every year we find nests of peacock (Aglais io) caterpillars among the reserve’s nettle beds. Those caterpillars will be pupating soon and we will begin to see the new adults this month.
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There are funnel shaped webs low down in the dense vegetation of the park’s hedges and edges; what lives in them?
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A dandelion crammed with tiny bronze-black beetles. Our favourite entomologist emailed us:
They’re pollen beetles. Getting a positive ID is going to be impossible without sending me a specimen (and they’re too small!) but this time of year the most common species is the Common Pollen Beetle Meligethes aeneus.
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This post was first published in June 2019
A queen wasp (Vespula vulgaris) in the hedge in Sleepers Field.
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There are pond skaters (Gerris lacustris) on the little pond under the wooden bridge at Lambrok Meadow end of the tributary stream.
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The ladybirds are leaving hibernation.
First published April 2020
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Message and a picture from Ian Bushell.
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In the world of invertebrates, black and yellow signals danger. It says to predators: I am poisonous or I will bite you.
Read on to discover more:
There are thousands of species of invertebrates that overwinter in the leaf litter below our gardens’ trees and shrubs.
Continue reading “Let the leaves lie”
The temperature is dropping and we have already seen the first frosts. The reserve’s invertebrates are preparing for hibernation.
Continue reading
Tardigrades have been found everywhere in Earth’s biosphere, from the highest mountaintops to the deepest sea and from tropical rainforests to the Antarctic. There are sure to be some, somewhere, in the reserve’s ponds, going quietly about their business.
Continue reading
There are hundreds of species of crane fly in this country and almost all of them go by the name of daddy long legs. The differences between species can be microscopically small but we think this specimen photographed in the reserve is either a common European crane fly (Tipula paludosa) or a marsh crane fly, (T. oleracea).
This late in the year, there are few butterflies about but there is always a speckled wood (Pararge aegeriais) somewhere. Here is one on hawthorn berries photographed in September 2019 by DKG.
Continue reading “Speckled wood”
This strange object is a knopper gall on an oak tree, photographed in the reserve yesterday by Ian Bushell. At this time of year, our many oak trees are sporting a whole variety of galls.
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A queen wasp (Vespula vulgaris) in the hedge in Sleepers Field.
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Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 