Monthly Round Up - January

As mentioned on the Home page of this blog, I hadn't set myself any goals regarding the number of fly and beetle species I aimed to see throughout the year, nor for the number of lifers I hoped to accrue. I hadn't even compiled a list of my most wanted species for the year ahead - and that's something I've been doing at the start of each year for a long, long time now. My only goals were to find flies and beetles in each month of the year, to add lifers from both groups in each month of the year and to become slightly more familiar with, and competent in, dipterology and coleopterology. 

However, since then I have been Challenged by The Ghost to see which of us can identify the greatest number of beetle and fly species throughout the year, a challenge I immediately accepted. This was then subtly enhanced by Mark Telfer who decided he was quite keen to see just how many dipteran families he could identify during the year. I decided to join Mark in his PFL Odyssey and promptly enrolled an unwitting Ghost into our ranks. I'm by far the weakest dipterist out of the three of us, but it will be fun seeing how long I can keep up with the other two.

And there are absolutely no doubts, worries or thoughts of cheating going on around here, nope...

I think it's fair to say that I've had a very busy January at work whilst the place is closed for refurb. I've put in not too far short of double my usual work hours and have definitely had far less free time during daylight hours than I'd like. But the weather has been utterly shocking anyway with sideways rain almost becoming the daily norm. Rain that falls vertically is a fast-disappearing, vague memory from time spent further south. Thankfully it hasn't been particularly cold, though hail has been frequent and I woke up to find the outside world covered in snow one morning.

All of which is my way of saying that I've had a somewhat underwhelming start to my 2020 Vision. Here's a run down of the species thus far. Anything in red is a lifer for me.

The beetles - 

1st Jan - Euophryum confine - (small weevil) one found inside rotten wood in Uig Wood

4th Jan - Aepus marinus (tiny carabid) several beneath rocks on Uig Beach

4th Jan - Micralymma marinum (staph) a couple beneath rocks on Uig beach

6th Jan - Psylliodes napi - (flea beetle) one found on the laundry shed wall after dark, Uig Hotel

10th Jan - Nebria brevicollis - (carabid) one found beneath a rock in Uig Wood

18th Jan - Leptusa ruficollis - (aleoch staph) found inside a decaying Birch Polypore near Portree

19th Jan - Anthobium unicolor (staph) 12 sieved from dead ferns and leaflitter, Uig Hotel grounds

19th Jan - Proteinus brachypterus (staph) 1 sieved from dead ferns and leaflitter, Uig Hotel grounds

26th Jan - Cychrus caraboides (large carabid) 1 found beneath leaf litter in Bernisdale Woods

28th Jan - Laemostenus terricola (large carabid) caught in a sticky trap in Uig Hotel kitchen

Leptusa ruficollis from within an old Birch Polypore - det Mark Telfer

The flies - 

5th Jan - Sylvicola cinctus (window gnat) - male (gen det) attracted to light at Uig Hotel

8th Jan - Limonia nubeculosa (cranefly) - one indoors at Uig Hotel

10th Jan - Protophormia terraenovae (blowfly) - one buzzing around indoors at Uig Hotel

12th Jan - Trichocera regelationis - (winter gnat) - male (gen det) to security lights, Uig Hotel

13th Jan - Heteromyza commixta (heleomyzid) - one attracted to laundry shed lights, Uig Hotel

16th Jan - Trichocera major (winter gnat) - male (gen det) attracted to security light, Uig Hotel

16th Jan - Trichocera saltator (winter gnat) - female (gen det) attracted to security light, Uig Hotel

18th Jan - Phytomyza ranunculi (leaf-miner) - larva in Creeping Buttercup, Portree (now pupated)

[18th Jan - Phytomyza ilicis (leaf-miner) - many vacant mines in Holly leaves, Portree]

18th Jan - Chromatomyia aprilina (leaf-miner) - 2 larvae in Honeysuckle leaves, Portree

26th Jan - Scoliocentra caesia (heleomyzid) - on window of laundry shed by daylight, Uig Hotel

Head bristles of Scoliocentra caesia

All of which amounts to ten species of beetles (three lifers) and eleven species of flies (five lifers). I'd be very happy if the proportion of lifers stayed as high as that! You can read The Ghost's end of January tally here. I'd like to say that it's a close run thing at the moment...but it really isn't haha! 

In addition to The Ghost's Challenge, there's Mark's PFL Challenge in which I'm also taking part.

This is very much a break from the norm for me. Ordinarily I like to identify specimens to species level. But when it comes to diptera, there are so damn many of them that require hard to find, out of print, largely unavailable keys you simply have to leave them at family level. Frustrating, to say the least! The keys are out there though, most of them just need a lot of tracking down first.

These are the thirteen fly families I've encountered so far this year (out of 107)  - 

Limoniidae (Short-palped Craneflies) - 1 species identified 

Mycetophilidae (Fungus Gnats) - several unidentified specimens

Sciaridae (Black Fungus Gnats) - one unidentified specimen

Psychodidae (Moth Flies) - two unidentified specimens

Trichoceridae (Winter Gnats) - three identified species

Anisopodidae (Window Gnats) - one identified species

Simuliidae (Black Flies) - one unidentified specimen

Chironomidae (Non-biting Midges) - several unidentified specimens

Lonchopteridae (Spear-winged Flies) - one unidentified larva (not retained)

Agromyzidae (Leaf-mining Flies) - 2 species as larvae in mines, one as an empty mine

Heleomyzidae (Heleomyzids) - 2 species identified, several unidentified specimens too

Sphaeroceridae (Lesser Dungflies) - several unidentified specimens

Calliphoridae (Blow Flies) - one identified species

So a bit of a push required in February. Happily, I have high expectations of a rather significant improvement. I have three weeks off work (18 February to 10th March) and will be dividing a fair whack of my time between The Ghost and Mark Telfer! There's a possibility of meeting up with a few other PSL nutters whilst I'm down south, but whether I do or not one thing is pretty much guaranteed - my beetle and fly tally is set to take a large hike upwards before my next monthly round up!