Year end

The last year or so has been spent mostly poring over microscopes and identifying obscure specimens from different parts of Ireland. I also started the Irish Leafmine recording system in conjunction with the National Biodiversty Data Centre, and that initiative has seen a new batch of mine-recorders submitting records for the first time. Here's a shot of the coverage in the first year:

The scheme, which can be accessed here, necessitated the creation of the first Irish checklist of leafminers, which currently stands at 839 species, and can be accessed here.

I have also been working on an Irish checklist of plant galls in an effort to increase awareness and recording of plant galls in Ireland. Hopefully this new scheme will get under way in 2017. This list currently stands at 1277 species (there are many more types of organism that cause galls than those that mine leaves!).

Now that I have more or less retired from my computing career, I have devoted more time to my book, which documents the more interesting finds over the last 14 years since I started taking photographs and writing my blogs. I think 2017 might be the year that I try to find a publisher.