Graeme Lyons
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graemelyons.bsky.social
Graeme Lyons
@graemelyons.bsky.social
Freelance entomologist specialising in reserve management, conservation grazing, rewilding & farming. 2nd place pan-species listing. Spiders. Bugs. Grew up below poverty line. AuDHD. Writing this https://pelagicpublishing.com/products/pan-species-listing
Pinned
My book has got a great endorsement from Chris Packham: "This clever and immensely resourceful book is an overdue gem". There's also a few pages up on the website too! It's up for pre-order here with publication set for January pelagicpublishing.com/products/pan...
1/2 #speciesaday no. 676 is Megalinus glabratus. A large, shiny, local rove beetle with red eltyra and a big head that I see in open habitats, usually on the Downs. I have two records in June but most of my records come from August and September.
November 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
1/2 #speciesaday no. 676 is Common Rock-rose (Helianthemum nummularium). Vulnerable as of the latest status review! It's certainly not in every parcel of chalk grassland but is often really common where it occurs and there are loads of inverts that use it (as well as oddly, mycorrhizal fungi).
November 23, 2025 at 9:59 AM
#speciesaday no. 675 is Silky Rosegill (Volvariella bombycina). I have only seen this once at Ebernoe Common in 2016, growing out of a hole in a Beech tree. It really reminded me of some sort of coconut dessert! www.panspecieslisting.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Apologies for the delay in getting through iRecord verification - something had to give with the book for the last few years. Now that's out of the way I am catching up with the backlog. 300 records verified this morning and 100 of my own records entered from the Spurn PSL get together.
November 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM
#speciesaday no. 674 is Montagu's Sea Snail (Liparis montagui). Not a snail, but a fish! Considering it is not meant to be that scarce, I only have one record - from 2013 at St Mary's Lighthouse in the north east. I'm sure I've seen it once more though, but not in the last decade. Cut little thing!
November 20, 2025 at 8:34 AM
1/2 #speciesaday no. 673 is Marsh Clubmoss (Lycopodiella inundata) is a Nationally Scarce & Section 41 (although it has come off the Red List in the 2025 status review, this is stil a plant that's struggling in places). Found only on damp, black, peaty mud (M16), in places where you'll see sundews.
November 19, 2025 at 6:55 AM
1/2 #speciesaday no. 672 is the obscene Parasitic Bolete (Pseudoboletus parasiticus) growing from its host Common Earthball (Scleroderma citrinum). Around 10 years ago I was seeing this all around the West Weald. I guess it will come round again.
November 18, 2025 at 6:55 PM
1/2 #speceisaday no. 671 is Abax parallelepipedus. A large & common carabid typically found under logs in woodland. I just sent off all my 8,200 carabid records to Mark Telfer for him to include in the status review he is doing. Surprised there are not more (as I make 10,000 spider records A YEAR).
November 17, 2025 at 10:43 AM
A mind-blowingly cool few days rock-pooling down at Falmouth last weekend concluded with a session at Helford Passage. We found a cockle new to Cornwall! Plus a load of other cool stuff. Full story in my blog...
analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
November 15, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Graeme Lyons
This Male Walckenaeria acuminata may be common but its a fantastic looking spider, since getting into Linys this Genus is so fasinating. And its great that the male and female of this species can be Identified with a hand Lens.
@britishspiders.bsky.social
November 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
1/2 #speciesaday no. 671 is Bembidion properans. A common and ubiquitous carabid of open spaces. I have 3.1 times as many records of the closely related B. lampros as I do this species (on the NBN there are 3.5 times as many - fairly comparable). Mostly recorded by suction sampler. Year-round.
November 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Graeme Lyons
From an ancient beech woodland in West Sussex, its a pig to get to with all the gear, and to date ive never seen much there. But thats has changed samples from the 9th November have produced Centromerus cavernarum!!One i had hoped for there.
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@graemelyons.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 3:58 PM
1/2 #speciesaday no. 670 is Silometopus reussi. A small money spider associated with dung & grass heaps and old hay. Fairly frequent where it occurs but I have never seen it away from farms. I have records in Mar, Apr & Sep. This was from a farm to the east of Brighton in Sep.
November 12, 2025 at 7:00 AM
#speciesaday no. 669 is Trapania tartanella. Another recent colonist and I found this at Seaview on the I of W the day after finding Aulonia. It's only the 2nd record for the island. I knew it was different straight away as the yellow patches grade into orange at the tips - like little flames!
November 11, 2025 at 8:30 AM
My friend Penny Green has started a new podcast over the last few months, I recorded this with her back in July and it's just been released. I was surveying the arable margins for invertebrates on the Wiston Estate. It's a great listen.
Marginal Gains - The Wandering Ecologist Podcast
Episode 5 takes us on top of the South Downs at the Wiston Estate where I join awesome entomologist, Graeme Lyons, on some invertebrate surveys. We’re looking at the benefits of having wildflower stri...
thewanderingecologistpodcast.buzzsprout.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:31 PM
#speciesaday no. 668 is the Orange-clubbed Sea Slug (Limacia clavigera). This fairly common nudi was one I had not connected with until Thursday. I saw 2 at Silver Steps and at least another 2 at Gylly Reef (both Falmouth). This one feeds on bryozoans. I love the white ones with yellow accessories!
November 10, 2025 at 6:48 AM
1/2 #speciedsaday no. 667 is Hair-curler Sea Slug (Spurilla neapolitana). Found only new to the UK just over two months ago, this thing is spreading and FAST. I had it three days in a row in Cornwall (four individuals). It is quite an outstanding looking nudi, big too. There is a lot going on here.
November 9, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Graeme Lyons
Centromerus serratus, from a site in Sussex.
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@graemelyons.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Wow, we found an even bigger and brighter one!!! analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/11/how-...
November 7, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Only just this morning entered all of my field data from the summer, 38,879 records entered in 2025. I still have a lot of casual, garden moth trap and Jersey records (and most of my specimens) to add to this. You can see the big study on inverts in arable margins on the Norfolk & Wiston Estates.
November 7, 2025 at 10:29 AM
1/2 #speciesaday no. 666 (weirdly also my 9,666th species in the BI) is Rainbow Sea Slug (Babakina anadoni). A pair found under a rock at Silver Steps, Falmouth yesterday! Utterly mind blowing, easily a contender for the highlight of the year. My 35th nudibranch and 258th mollusc.
November 7, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Well that was pretty darned awesome. BABAKINA!!!
analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/11/chas...
November 6, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Graeme Lyons
Singularly impressive bird-finding and rarity-documentation - a visibly-migrating Black-faced Bunting photographed this morning in the Netherlands 🪶
www.dutchbirding.nl/gallery/deta...
November 5, 2025 at 1:35 PM
1/2 #speciedsaday no. 665 is Pachygnatha clercki. A fairly common spider in wetlands and damp grasslands but it can occasionally turn up in odd places, like arable margins. Larger, yellower and much less common than the ubiquitous P. degeeri. Almost always found by suction for much of the year.
November 5, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Graeme Lyons
My 3rd record for Walckenaeria obtusa at this woodland site, all 3 have been in moss under pines, all my W.nudipalpis records from that site are from leaf litter under sweet chestnut trees.
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November 5, 2025 at 3:42 PM