Another trip to Ards

A prolonged period of heavy rain suggested that a final trip to Ards for 2014 would be productive, so we went along to see what was around. It was suggested that we try an area that we hadn't visited before (Ards is huge!), so we chose a direction at random and set forth. The first part of the loop passed through an area that had fairly recently been disturbed due to clear-felling of Spruce (yay!), so that was rather unproductive, but we soon arrived at a high area that was undisturbed ancient Oak and Beech, with Birch at the fringes. It is clear that this area is not one that is visited by mushroom hunters, since we found a good number of very large Ceps (Boletus edulis) that had been left to decay:

Cep - Boletus edulis

And another specimen:

Cep - Boletus edulis

In the more well-trodden areas of the forest, these would have been gathered long before they reached this stage. Sadly, they were just too far gone to accompany our dinner that evening. I'd say there was possibly a kilo of Cep in those two.

Nearby we also found quite a few specimens of the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria:

A very fresh Amanita muscaria

The books always say that these are associated exclusively with Birch, and there was plenty of Birch in this area, but I have found specimens where no Birch has existed for decades. Perhaps they can survive on very old buried roots, etc., since it is well known that other Amanita species can be found in the middle of ploughed fields or meadows and indicate the previous existence of woodland at those locations.

A definite Birch associate is the Birch Polypore (Piptoporus betulinus):

Birch Polypore (Piptoporus betulinus)

The upper surface of these is brown, with a white porous underside that produces the spores. But this bizarre specimen has an extra fruit-body growing upside-down on its top surface. Most odd. Odd shapes like this are usually caused by the substrate (in this case dead Birch) being moved, but this tree was still upright in situ. Maybe it got damaged in an early part of its development, and this could effectively be scar tissue.

Another area had been cleared some time ago and was a mixture of young Birch with heath. There was plenty of Greater Woodrush still around, so we thought we might as well try for the extremely rare leaf-miner Cerodontha silvatica, and it was found almost immediately. This is the third location in all of Ireland and the first Donegal record since 2005:

Cerodontha silvatica

There was a very small area almost covered with this Saxifrage of some kind. I'll have to go back next summer when it's in flower to find out what species it is.
 

Saxifrage 'x'

I spotted this minute (3-4 mm.) leaf-hopper on Hazel as I was checking for leaf-mines:

It's probably Edwardsiana rosae, but these cannot be done to species without a specimen under a microscope.

There were plenty of galls of Hartigola annulipes on fallen Beech leaves:

Hartigola annulipes on Beech

This is the first time I have noticed that they seem to create 'green islands' in the same way as Ectoedemia micromoths do on Oak. I can't see a definite benefit from the chlorophyll, since the midges feed on the interior of the gall. Maybe it's an accidental by-product of their gall creation process.

Towards the end of the walk we found a few specimens of this spindle-shaped fungus growing under Beech:

Macrotyphula fistulosa var. fistulosa

There are quite a few records from Northern Ireland, but this appears to be a first Irish record. About 8 cm. tall. New to my species list.

Glenarm Bioblitz 2014

The Bioblitz was organised in four locations in Ireland, and the recording was centralised via the internet, so we could see the live scores from the other sites. I was invited to assist with the recording at the Northern Ireland site at Glenarm Estate, which is situated more or less along both sides of a river.

The weather was dull and overcast when I arrived, so I decided to work a few woodland paths, looking at plants, fungi, leaf-miners, etc.: all the things that are still visible when the light is bad and there's no heat. I hoped that the weather would warm up in the afternoon and I could find and record more insects then.

I quickly filled a couple of recording sheets and made a loop back to base camp to hand them in. A quick glance at the 11am scores had us comfortably in the lead by around 150 species, but I wasn't feeling over-confident, since although I had travelled a few miles in the morning, the habitat didn't vary much along the way. I helped with a couple of identifications of some collected specimens and had a spot of lunch.

Just as we were getting ready to cross the river for the first afternoon run, the sun came out and suddenly insects were flying everywhere. Although the woodland on the south of the river looked much the same as the area we had covered in the morning, there were more clearings and the paths were closer to the river, so the variety of plants and insects that we encountered was encouraging.

My first notable find for the day was the excellent hoverfly Portevinia maculata:

The hoverfly Portevinia maculata (male)

Portevinia maculata is tightly associated with Ramsons, since the larvae live underground inside the bulb. The specimen shown is a male: the females are rarely seen, as they spend most of their time deep under the leaves. I had noticed in the morning that Ramson patches in the woodland were very extensive, sometimes extending to 50m or more, and I had high hopes of finding this hoverfly.

I photographed a few more hoverflies and other insects, and then someone pointed out the flowers of Greater Woodrush, which also went into the list. As a matter of habit (rather than expectation!), I examined the leaves of the Woodrush to check for the extremely rare leafmining fly Cerodontha silvatica, which I found in Donegal in 2005, making a first Irish record. Imagine my astonishment when I actually found it after 9 years of unsuccessful searching:

The mine of Cerodontha silvatica in Greater Woodrush

I first recorded Cerodontha silvatica in Drumboe in 2005, but that population was wiped out by over-enthusiastic council workers who strimmed the woodrush down to the ground, and I have looked for it ever since. The number of records for this miner is extremely low, and I can assure you that it's not for a lack of looking: many dipterists and leaf-miner specialists have sought this species for up to 40 years without any success, so it is truly rare. I suppose it must have some particular habitat requirements, and I noted that the two locations were very similar, with deep shade and with ferns and lying water in ditches also very close. 

Puparium in the mine

This is a first record for Northern Ireland and the second for Ireland.

I carefully carried my specimen leaf back to the recording centre and proudly showed it to everyone who would look.

After that, things were a bit of an anticlimax and I submitted another couple of recording sheets with perhaps five new species for my personal list.

One of the new species for me was the leaf gall of Eriophyes similis on Blackthorn:

The gall of Eriophyes similis on Blackthorn

I also recorded Soft Brome for the first time:

Soft Brome

At 5pm, the recording was closed and we waited 15 minutes for the final tally to be announced. Loud cheers went up when it was announced that we had recorded a total of 1116 species, over 200 more than the second-placed total, and the title was retained in Northern Ireland.

A massive amount of organisation is required for these events, with recorders, base camp, data-entry, social media stations, microscopy and reference sections to set up. Many thanks to all who helped make this such an enjoyable event.