Di Napier

#butterfly @bcwarwickshire.bsky.social Common Blue or Brown Argus? Markings don’t quite seem to be right for either.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth hovering over Red Valerian, with proboscis in a flower

Small Copper butterfly resting between dry grasses on a field edge

Red Admiral butterfly feeding on Buddleia

Gatekeeper (Hedge Brown) butterfly feeding on Wild Marjoram growing in a garden

Hummingbird hawkmoth, Small Copper, Red Admiral and Gatekeeper. Warwickshire garden and field edge #moth #butterfly

Though I have had a Micarea peliocarpa where I only saw the C red reaction in an apothecial section under the microscope

Interesting. I’m afraid I can’t add anything useful to Anthony’s points

Brown Argus in our Warwickshire garden on Bird’s-foot Trefoil

Bunodophoron melanocarpum (Sw.) Wedin Thallus fruticose, shrubby-coralloid, 3-5 cm high, often forming extensive mats; branches highly divided in upper part, markedly flattened, especially towards the base, ending with small, subterete, p...

Interesting. I’ve only seen it non-fertile or with apothecia, but wondering whether yours maybe has pycnidia? Like Cladonia can have apothecia and/or pycnidia. The Italic website says Bunodophorum can have pycnidia, so seems plausible? italic.units.it/index.php?pr...

I really thought it was a map! Very nice.

I’ve a strong suspicion they are mites rather than slime mould. Mites like that (oribatid mites) are very common under or amongst lichen. I have seen quite a range of slime moulds (including Trichia), but none anything much like that. I think I can just about see tiny legs.

The soredia gave a faint pinkish reaction to K (not really ‘dull violet’).

Whitish crustose lichen with white/brownish soredia and dark red apothecia with pale rims

A non-fertile example. Whitish crustose lichen with white/brownish soredia

The edge of a non-fertile example. White lobes, and white/brownish soredia away from the edge

Section of apothecium in KOH. The upper layer of the apothecium (dull reddish in water) turned bright red in KOH, but rapidly dissolved and dispersed. More or less continuous green algal layer below the hymenium.

#lichenGBI Caloplaca teicholyta with apothecia. First time I’ve seen it fertile. On calcareous ironstone, Warwickshire, UK. Used video to catch the red reaction on the apothecial section, as it dissolved out rapidly. The soredia gave a faint pinkish reaction to K (not really ‘dull violet’) >

Very nice!

Labour blocks proposal for ‘swift bricks’ in all new homes MPs had previously backed Conservative amendment to ask developers to provide hollow bricks for endangered birds Providing every new home with at least one “swift brick” to help endangered cavity-nesting birds has been rejected by Labour at the committee stage of its increasingly controversial planning bill. The amendment to the bill to ask every developer to provide a £35 hollow brick for swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings, which was tabled by Labour MP Barry Gardiner, has been rejected by the Labour-dominated committee. Continue reading...

Labour blocks proposal for ‘swift bricks’ in all new homes

Labour blocks proposal for ‘swift bricks’ in all new homes MPs had previously backed Conservative amendment to ask developers to provide hollow bricks for endangered birds

So Labour say they won't install swift bricks because they are moving away from specific species mitigations to landscape level ones.

But swifts nest IN BUILDINGS. So how is landscape-level compensation supposed to help? Just ecologically illiterate nonsense 🤦‍♀️

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Nice photos. Not one I know.

A special issue dedicated to lichen research with emphasis on new approaches to the study of the symbiosis: The diversity of organisms present in thalli (including all fungi, algae and bacteria); Their physical and metabolic interactions; Their contributions to the functioning of the lichen symbiosis. In addition to original research, we also welcome perspectives, reviews and methods papers. Submission deadline: September 2025. Guest editors: Veera Tuovinen Nogerius, Ioana Onut Brännström, Gulnara Tagirdzhanova, Ellen Cameron

🌟Call for Papers on #Lichen #symbiosis🌟 Thrilled to be a guest editor for The Lichenologist, together with @veera-t-nogerius.bsky.social, @ioanabrannstrom.bsky.social, and Ellen Cameron. Send us papers on the inner workings of lichens, submission is open till September 2025!
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My first post! And my posts are going to be about lichens. Because they are amazing and I love them! This is Dimelaena oreina, moonglow lichen. A tiny sample highly magnified, from Ft Adams, RI

Good question!

That is a fantastic display of slime mould (not a fungus or a lichen). It will likely change colour and texture dramatically. Not sure which one, maybe something like Didymium or Fuligo, or Brefeldia, but the PNW likely has different species to where I am in the UK.

🌿 Rainforest in the UK 😮
At the Chelsea Flower Show @RobStoneman, Director of Landscape Recovery at @TheWildlifeTrusts, is championing from the Rainforest Garden, which won silver-gilt. It is a breathtaking exhibit reminding us that rainforests are not just tropical.#ChelseaFlowerShow

Apothecium, plural apothecia. Like jam tarts. Some lichens have perithecia, which are enclosed. Both are types of lichen fruiting body, that produce the spores

Ooh!

Sequencing has its own deep rabbit-holes!

Agh! Sorry! Not sure I like the name variiformis anyway, it sounds like it has even worse implications than varia. Dastardly things

Interesting. The habitat description for A. variiformis maybe makes it less likely? (Mostly coastal.) Don’t think it’s a UK species, so I wasn’t aware of it before. But I agree these lirellate things are tough. I have several samples that need reviewing as I couldn’t decide what they were.

It looks like a lovely soft candlewick blanket. Perhaps Lepra (Pertusaria) corallina?

Interesting link to article about different perceptions of lichen interactions with building stone

Not sure about the greenish foliose one, but that bubbling bulgy one peeking in on the left looks like the weird and wonderful Lasallia pustulata

Wonderful photos. I missed so much when we were there 4 years ago. Spectacular place.

Ooh! Such lovely little things. Was that today? We saw some on 9th March, though only just opening then.

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