Duane Clarke was brought up in Lancing but now resides in Yorkshire.
He recently brought an entomologist friend down south to explore the local invert population.
The trip included a look at Wydewater Lagooon and other local places of interest.
This is his message to me, reporting the days work:
"I took Robert (Entomologist) down and let him loose on the south downs and more importantly wydewater, Wydewater did present a problem as it is a nature reserve but Robert personally knows the top man for the english nature reserves so permission to look there on our next visit won't be a problem, we did however have a good search through the abandoned swans nest in dads garden/rubbish tip (he calls it nature I call it lazy!). That didn't reveal too much but there have been several beetles recovered from the general dead grass and bush piles from the garden(behind 148A opposite the Kia dealership) that are in the process of being identified. We also collected in the seaweed on the high tide line a beetle called Cafius (one of four species) and a whole rake yet to be identified.
We also visited the woods on the north facing edge of Chanctonbury ring and found lots, including a pseudoscorpion (possibly Chelifer but I haven't found too much info on these funny little critters) we hiked up to the top and sifted through sheep sh%t and found several dung beetles(Aphodius species) and had an encounter with a passer by wondering what we were up to. On our return we looked at some dry grass bundles apparently called Faggots and found hundreds of insects and got so carried away with this we didn't notice our new audience the local police checking the car parks but they were interested in the psuedoscorpion and a beetle called Piaderus with a bright red and blue markings.
We then moved to Cissbury ring to rummage through the horse dung pile near the car park and found a prize find for Robert a Philonthus spinipes which was first observed in britain in march 1997 in Dorset, originally a oriental species that has spread through Europe. It has a bright orange/red elytra (wing casing on its back) and is about 14mm long.
Ferring was the next target due to a good friend and the cafe at the end of the rife and found plenty of leaf beetles in hibernation and again some species that need identifying.
All in all we must of collected 450+ specimens in seven locations, I've found about 10 species of spider to look up and identify (including an absolutely massive garden spider). We are looking into getting some photos for you but we haven't got into the digital realms yet but Robert can take photos through his microscope with a professional quality 35mm and I am looking into getting something scanned into the P.C. "
He recently brought an entomologist friend down south to explore the local invert population.
The trip included a look at Wydewater Lagooon and other local places of interest.
This is his message to me, reporting the days work:
"I took Robert (Entomologist) down and let him loose on the south downs and more importantly wydewater, Wydewater did present a problem as it is a nature reserve but Robert personally knows the top man for the english nature reserves so permission to look there on our next visit won't be a problem, we did however have a good search through the abandoned swans nest in dads garden/rubbish tip (he calls it nature I call it lazy!). That didn't reveal too much but there have been several beetles recovered from the general dead grass and bush piles from the garden(behind 148A opposite the Kia dealership) that are in the process of being identified. We also collected in the seaweed on the high tide line a beetle called Cafius (one of four species) and a whole rake yet to be identified.
We also visited the woods on the north facing edge of Chanctonbury ring and found lots, including a pseudoscorpion (possibly Chelifer but I haven't found too much info on these funny little critters) we hiked up to the top and sifted through sheep sh%t and found several dung beetles(Aphodius species) and had an encounter with a passer by wondering what we were up to. On our return we looked at some dry grass bundles apparently called Faggots and found hundreds of insects and got so carried away with this we didn't notice our new audience the local police checking the car parks but they were interested in the psuedoscorpion and a beetle called Piaderus with a bright red and blue markings.
We then moved to Cissbury ring to rummage through the horse dung pile near the car park and found a prize find for Robert a Philonthus spinipes which was first observed in britain in march 1997 in Dorset, originally a oriental species that has spread through Europe. It has a bright orange/red elytra (wing casing on its back) and is about 14mm long.
Ferring was the next target due to a good friend and the cafe at the end of the rife and found plenty of leaf beetles in hibernation and again some species that need identifying.
All in all we must of collected 450+ specimens in seven locations, I've found about 10 species of spider to look up and identify (including an absolutely massive garden spider). We are looking into getting some photos for you but we haven't got into the digital realms yet but Robert can take photos through his microscope with a professional quality 35mm and I am looking into getting something scanned into the P.C. "
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