Hello again!
Hope everyone had a nice Christmas and new year!
So, I have been back at work for a couple of weeks now and am really busy already.
First some good news about Falkirk’s brownfield sites!!
Before Christmas I was finishing of my id work on the invertebrates I collected from the brownfield sites in Falkirk and have been identifying ground beetles, spiders, grasshoppers, harvestmen, hoverflies and ants. I put the names of collected invertebrates into the NBN gateway to see their distribution across Scotland (particularly Falkirk). Many of the species I have collected have not been recorded in Falkirk before although they are common and widespread in Britain e.g. Green tiger beetle (Cicindela campestris), Violet ground beetle (Carabus violaceus), Field digger wasp (Mellinus arvesis), and the running crab spider Tibellus maritimus. This may be because no-one is sampling invertebrates at brownfield sites in Falkirk.
A couple of species that have been collected are really exciting for Scotland.
• The Comb-footed spider (Family Theridiidae) Anelosimus vittatus has not been recorded from Falkirk before and although it is widespread across Scotland it is local in its distribution.
• The Hobo spider (Tegenaria agrestis) is a brownfield specialist and was previously only known from five locations in Scotland (two of which were in Falkirk). This species has been collected from a new location in Falkirk and this spider may be spreading its distribution across Scotland.
• The ground beetle Amara praetermissa is a Nationally Scarce (Notable B) species and the only record of this species from Scotland is from Bo’ness in 1980. Although I did not collect this species from Bo’ness it has been collected from a new location in Falkirk.
Here is a picture of a Comma butterfly seen at one of my sites.
And a picture of the most amazing brownfield site in Falkirk!
Apart from my id work I have been busy looking at derelict sites across Scotland using Google earth. A total of 1200 sites have been marked in Google earth and each site has been checked by myself and a Buglife member of staff to see if the site has open mosaic habitat. The next stage of this project is to map the sites in GIS which is going to be a great learning curve as I have never used GIS before.
Other things I have been busy with are writing up a report about all the sites I visited on the Falkirk Vacant and Derelict land register. I have been suggesting what sites may be interesting for invertebrates and the threat to the site (e.g. housing or industrial development). I have also been looking at the species I have collected and written information about each one and whether it is common in Britain. This has helped me remember the scientific names and how to go about identifying them.
I have been helping to identify invertebrates collected by pitfall traps last year on the Solway Firth. I have looked at ants, beetles and grasshoppers. This has been really interesting getting to look at species from a different habitat to what I am used to and I have learned how to identify several different species.
So… to the next few months.
I have a busy few months ahead of me as I have to map the derelict sites of Scotland onto GIS and go to the invertebrate collection centre at Edinburgh museum for a week. In March I will start collecting invertebrates again at several of the brownfield sites in Falkirk. I also have a couple of trips down to the Buglife office in Peterborough to look forward to.
Thanks for reading!!
Suzie!!