Lloyd Davies

Some more Pseudoscorpions from Crates Wood, Shaftesbury. Two Moss Neobisid, Neobisium carcinoides with springtail prey and two photos of a Riddish Two-eyed Chelifer, Roncus lubricus

I went to Crates Wood near Shaftesbury which has lots of thick moss on the ground. I found lots of Pseudoscorpions mainly Moss Neobisid, Neosbisium carcinoides. Including one that spent a long time cleaning its palps and jaws, allowing a lucky shot showing the variable teeth on the fixed finger.

Nice find and great photos!

A new Harvestman for the garden in Shaftesbury, this is a relatively new species in the UK . Dicranopalpus larvatus

A dark and shiny pseudoscorpion with pale reddish palps and claws facing right on a piece of wood.

I rarely find Neobisium carcinoides so it was a good job that the Norfolk beetle recorder was on hand at NWT Sweet Briar Marshes yesterday to find this one for me. Martin is far better at finding these critters than me! #Arachtober #arachnids #pseudoscorpions

Daudebarbia rufa, first seen in the UK 2016. Fantastic day in South Wales with Naturalist Christian Owen who first found this species in the UK,also great thanks to Alastair Stevens for the invite.

A garden find from Shaftesbury this week, I occasionally see these in the house (usually the kitchen) but this is the first outdoor one I've seen. This is a Wine Cellar Spider, Psilochorus simoni carrying her eggs. (I do have a small cellar but rarely any wine for very long)

A Pseudoscorpion from the garden in Shaftesbury last week, this one is the Reddish Two-eyed Chelifer, Roncus lubricus.

Yes, I try to irecord most of what I find, including using the group species group for arachnids.

Chthonius ischnocheles with an Orbatid mite meal, in the garden in Shaftesbury. They seem to like these!

I've been looking for this one in Dorset for years!

A lovely trip down to Studland in Dorset, kept an eye out for Beavers but no luck, but did find some of my favourite spiders; Attulus saltator, Thomisus onustus, Rhysodromus histrio and Alopecosa barbipes (in almost Sandbear colours)

Tansy fun; I was photographing Colletes (similis?) and noticed a tiny Gall Midge, Ozirhincus hungaricus laying eggs in its florets, then coming along behind its parasitoid wasp Inostemma (reticulatum?) with an odd black pudding structure on its back housing a long ovipositor to parasitise them.

The Brown One. Harvestman, Nelima gothica exploring the wall in the garden in Shaftesbury. #gardenfinds #harvestman #dorset

And Marsh Lover, nice picture!

I love books and have these three volumes (and Bees of Europe). Else and Edwards is great as an alternative and very beautiful but I tend to keep Falk on the real and computer desktop. Changing subject what the UK really needs is an equivalent type Wasp book that includes Spider wasps and photos!

Very nice, the Rove beetle is Paederus and looks like P.riparius, I think!

A dapper chap from the garden in Shaftesbury this week, no females seen yet. Ornate Tailed Digger Wasp - Cerceris rybyensis

Seems to be lots of these in the garden in Shaftesbury at the moment. Never seen them before, enjoying the hot dry weather under the pine tree perhaps!

I think I've been luck, they've appeared in every house I've lived in in the last twenty years (all in Dorset), usually in window and door frames. You can't have long to wait!🤞

A tiny Spitting Spider, Scytodes thoracica cropped up in the kitchen this morning, one of my favourites!

Just back from a holiday in Italy and if I could bring back two species to join UK wildlife they would be the European Rhinoceros Beetle, Oryctes nasicornis and its Mammoth Wasp parasite, Megascolia maculata #biginsects

A male Bee Grabber from Eype, this one is probably Thecophora atra

A new one for me from Eype on the South Dorset coast, a great place for new stuff. This is Micropeza corrigiolata a Stilt Legged Fly.

@dqdqd.bsky.social

These look really good!

I have seen the non-native Wall Lizards, Podarcis muralis on the Purbeck coast of Dorset before but on a sunny day this week I got to take some photos for the first time. So beautiful!

Really excited and surprised to find this one in the garden in Shaftesbury today. A female Scarce Chaser, Libellula fulva. I think she must have flown miles to the hill top here from her slow flowing river and dyke habitat!

I need that!

Another bright visitor to the garden in Shaftesbury, this one is a Handsome Fungus Beetle, Endomychus coccineus, sometimes called a False Ladybird. #gardenfinds #beetles