Class: Fauna – Order/Suborder: 2008 Opiliones – Nemastoma bimaculatum – 2010 – 2009 Mammals – Erinaceus europaeus – 2011 – Pithanus maerkelii – 2013 – 2014 Talpa Europaea – Acalypta parvula – 2015 Stephanitis takeyai – 2016 – Acilius sulcatus – Typhlocyba quercus – Oncotylus viridiflavus
Species Links: Fungi: Scutellinia scutellata
About Links: Me – Hemiptera – Auchenorrhyncha – Heteroptera
Records of all the flora and fauna I have found in and around the City from 2008 to the present, (2016). All, when possible, will be supported with images, and identification reference/s. If a species identity is determined by someone other than myself then it will be mentioned, but only in the first instance. Note, all sites I have used as a reference, my library, and people who have helped me, are all listed on my main page.
FAUNA
Opiliones
Nemastoma bimaculatum
A somewhat discreet and definitely not easy to spot Harvestman spider, for I have never found it out in the open where it can be found.. Only by looking under discarded human litter, in this instance a small plank of wood. It can be found all year round in woodland habitats. It is a ground dwelling species, where forages for anything it can over power. One of, if not the smallest of the Harvestmen to be found in the UK. Its colour, and white markings make it the easiest of the Family to identify. Its national distribution is dense and wide spread, check here.
Record Data
Species: Nemastoma bimaculatum. Date: 23/04/2008 Location: Lincoln Site: Backies Woods. Grid reference: SKSK960685 County: VC53 Quantity: 1 Stage: Adult. Gender: Not recorded. Recorder: Mick E Talbot. Determiner: Mick E Talbot. Comments: National and County recorders please feel free to copy and add the record to your respective databases.
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Animalia. Subkingdom: Eumetazoa. Phylum: Arthropoda. Subphylum: Chelicerata. Class: Arachnida. Subclass: Dromopoda. Order. Opiliones. Suborder: Palpatores. Superfamily: Troguloidea. Family: Nemastomatidae. Genus: Nemastoma. Species: bimaculatum
Binominal: Nemastoma bimaculatum (Fabricius 1775)
2009
MAMMALS
European Hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus: Only a baby, out around 3 O’clock in the afternoon, after a torrential downpour. Observed feeding and only half way through July,so after checking it out health wise and a brief shooting session I returned it to the undergrowth. A little further on I spotted another of the same size, it too was busily munching its way through the undergrowth and left undisturbed.
TOP
2010
HETEROPTERA
Conostethus venustus A fairly recent introduction to the UK from Europe. First discovered by me in Lincoln, on a small brownfield site, sadly it is now a residential site for humans. A voucher specimen was collected and was passed on to Colin Smith, (VC53/54 recorder for terrestrial Heteroptera), who had come to see me, and find a specimen himself, he failed. It was late in the afternoon so I was probably lucky to find one. Anyway whatever the reason I never got any feedback from him as far as a verification goes, it was however verified by Dr Tristan Bantock, and I think Jim Flanagan, (the national recorder for terrestrial Heteroptera), had some dealings with the verification too. Re the latter gentleman, and I must say I am not 100% sure, but I have been led to understand that he might be claiming his find, (a year after I had found it), as the first for the UK. Check this link out, note the date, no names mentioned, as pointed out to me here. A photo of the site referred to in the article can be found here, and I agree it was taken, I think, coincidently a month before my find, note though it only states where it was found. I do have to say that had the site been checked out at the time it could well of been there, and in abundance as scentless mayweed is its host.
Record Data
Species: Conostethus venustus, Date: 06/06/201o Location: Lincoln. Site: Fort Barnes. Grid reference: SK957682. County: VC53 Quantity: 1 Stage: Adult. Gender: Female. Recorder: Mick E Talbot. Determiner: Mick E Talbot. Comments: National and County recorders please feel free to copy and add the record to your respective databases.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia. Subkingdom: Eumetazoa. Phylum: Arthropoda. Subphylum: Hexapoda. Class: Insecta. Order: Hemiptera. Suborder: Heteroptera. Infraorder: Cimicomorpha. Superfamily: Miroidea. Family: Miridae. Subfamily: Phylinae. Tribe: Phylini. Genus: Conostethus. Species: venustus.
Binominal name: Conostethus venustus (Fieber 1858)
2011
Conostethus venustus
2012
Tingidae
Acalypta parvula: Shaken from moss, Hartsholme Country Park, acid grassland habitat. A first for me, well pleased..!
Length ~2 mm
Status: Common.
Easily overlooked, as was this one. A tiny black speck amongst many on my tray. I was looking for this one and not seeing anything obvious out came my hand lens, result, yay..!!! Note the size comparison against the Silver Birch seed.
European Mole, rained out. Interestingly on checking that I had the spelling correct for the first part of its scientific name I had a pleasant surprise, tara, blowing my trumpet again, please do click and you’ll hear where I’m coming from ☺. I hasten to add all my photo’s are covered by a CC licence, any interested parties please abide by the rules, other than that your welcome.
Heteroptera
Oncotylus viridiflavus
Cicadellidae
Phenotype
A beauty of a leafhopper, simply ID’ed by it stunning, unique markings. Markings on the vertex and pronotum are not always apparent. In its teneral state the wing markings are a greyish green for the black, and brownish for the red, making the ground colour look whiter, please check my iSpot image, thank you.
Host plants
It is a polyphagous species, feeding on Blackthorn, Plum, Oak, Hornbeam, and Birch. Personally I have found it in abundance on Oak, and Plum. Never found it on Hornbeam or Birch, both trees I check often on a daily bases, it can be as many as 10+ of each, depending on location. The 15th July 2016 is the first time I have recorded it on Blackthorn, again a tree I check on a regular, often daily bases, in fact I have a Sloe hedge that runs for around half a K directly past the back of my garden.
Distribution
Nationally I think it is under recorded, although there are quite a few widespread records for England and Wales, up as far as north Yorkshire, and Lancashire, however from there up to the Scottish highlands nothing. So get out there you northern bug recorders, inundate your county recorders, or if like VC53/54 you don’t have one, then check in with Ledra, you’ll find all you need on submitting your finds there, and I hasten to add, a lot more. For Lincolnshire the NBN Gateway hold no records, why? Well there is no county recorder for this order, a plausible understandable one, however why the national recorder for Auchenorrhyncha hasn’t, (because my records for this species were sent directly to him), I cant say.
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Animalia. Subkingdom: Eumetazoa. Phylum: Arthropoda. Subphylum: Hexapoda. Class: Insecta. Order: Hemiptera. Suborder: Cicadomorpha. Superfamily: Membracoidea. Family: Cicadellidae. Subfamily: Typhlocybinae. Tribe: Typhlocybini. Genus: Typhlocyba. Species: quercus.
Record Data
Species: Typhlocyba quercus. Date: 15/07/2016. Location: Lincoln. Site: Backies. Grid reference: SK957686. County: VC53. Quantity: 2. Stage: Adult. Gender: Not recorded. Recorder: Mick E Talbot. Determiner: Mick E Talbot. Habitat: Hedgerow. Host: Blackthorn. Comments: National and County recorders please feel free to copy and add
the record to your respective databases.
Pithanus maerkelii: Males are short lived, a mill shorter than the females, basically of the same phenotype apart from the obvious genitalia differences. Preferred habitat is damp grasslands, this specimen however, hadn’t read the book. It was tapped off White Deadnettle growing at the base of a steel fence. It is often described as ant like in appearance, down to its diminutive size, in my opinion, for to me, looking at my closed ups don’t agree. Length: Males 4 mm, females 5 mm. Phenology: June through to August. Males probably only till the end of June, early July. Distribution: For VC54 the NBN Gateway list 6 10 KM squares. Please check the NBN interactive map for all records for VC54. For VC53, my part of the world, none. Nationally, it is common, from the Orkney Isles, southern most of the Western Isles, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and down to the south coast of England. Worth mentioning is the British Bugs site reports that the pronotum is swollen in the middle, however the swelling’s, yes there are 2. Please check the dorsal view image, you will see that they are to the right and left of centre leaving a distinct grove/dip centrally.
Record Data:
Species: Pithanus maerkelii, Date: 10/07/2016 Location: Lincoln. Site: Pike Drain Lane south. Grid reference: SK957682. County: VC53 Quantity: 1 Stage: Adult. Gender: Female. Recorder: Mick E Talbot. Determiner: Mick E Talbot. Comments: National and County recorders please feel free to copy and add the record to your respective databases.
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Animalia. Subkingdom: Eumetazoa. Phylum: Arthropoda. Subphylum: Hexapoda. Class: Insecta. Order: Hemiptera. Suborder: Heteroptera. Infraorder: Cimicomorpha. Superfamily: Miroidea. Family: Miridae. Subfamily: Mirinae. Tribe: Stenodemini. Genus: Pithanus. Species: maerkelii.
Binominal: Pithanus maerkelii (Herrich-Schäffer 1838)
Cannot believe all the colors in the one….I’ll let you assume I can spell it😂. I’m not into bugs as I call them, definitely not spiders, but I do adore dragonflies and their ladies.
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Many thanks,
Any chance you could check this out, and if you agree reblog it.
https://thatgirl196.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/mind-over-matter/
Thank you
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