What a beauty! 😃

Good tip, thanks! Most of my watering has been quite targeted to any that were looking shrivelled. I was a bit worried about the green one at the top, but splitting seems to have given it a new lease of life!

Thank you! I’d like to do some more research on them. I hope I can get them to flower 🤞

That sounds like a sensible plan, I think I’ve only watered them twice since I got them last year

Thank you! Do you think they are identifiable?

Oh wow they’re looking great! Is it best to water them quite soon after everything has shrivelled up? Mine seem to all be going at quite different paces.

It’s my first time growing these and I’m enjoying watching them split

A brown patch of leafy liverwort sprawling over beech tree bark - Frullania dilatata

Overlapping, round, pale green leaves of a liverwort forming short branches over the surface of cracked beech tree bark - Radula complanata

A patch of pale green liverwort with forked strap-like branches on beech tree bark - Metzgeria furcata

A pale, sap green liverwort forming a patch of tiny blobs, like a jumbled string of minute beads, over the surface of tree bark - Cololejeunea minutissima

Enjoyed seeing plenty of liverworts at Parsonage Wood with Stephen Lemon during the @kentfieldclub.bsky.social meeting. Those pictured include Frullania dilatata, Radula complanata, Metzgeria furcata & Cololejeunea minutissima. @bbsbryology.bsky.social

A small piece of moss held between fingertips. Orthotrichum striatum - green tufts with pointed leaves. Capsules are distinctively smooth with 16 outer peristome teeth

A small piece of moss held between fingertips. Orthotrichum tenellum - tufts of green pointed leaves. Long capsules with a ring of stomata around them (needs a backlit microscope to view).

During the @kentfieldclub.bsky.social trip to Parsonage Wood, Stephen Lemon found lots of unusual Orthotrichum moss on a single coppiced tree! A few of these were O. striatum (distinctively smooth capsules) & O. tenellum (long capsules with a ring of stomata) @bbsbryology.bsky.social

Mike Phillips speaking on reptile survey in The Blean. The slide shows an artificial refugium on vegetation.

Dave Shenton talking on surveying Local Wildlife Sites.

Glen Powell speaking on work towards a new Shieldbug and Leatherbug Atlas.

A wrapt audience.

A brilliant AGM this afternoon in Lenham. We heard about reptile monitoring in The Blean, survey of Local Wildlife Sites (we'll be visiting several this year), and work on a new shieldbug atlas for Kent (which we'll be publishing). #naturalhistory #KentNature

Cool idea! The perks of having a brother with a 3D printer 😁

One of my 2025 highlights was getting to visit Windsor Great Park with the BENHS Saproxylic Group. The trees were phenomenal and we found the Windsor Weevil! 😃
#Saproxylic #Entomology #Coleoptera

Male Walckenaeria acuminata: Image thanks to Richard Gallon

Male Oedothorax apicatus: Image thanks to Richard Gallon

Male Oedothorax gibbosus: image thanks to Richard Gallon

Some genera of Money #spiders Linyphyiidae are present as adults throughout the year, often with peak male activity in the #winter months (see chart for Walckenaeria acuminata). Whatever the weather, it's a good time to be out looking for them and their wonderfully distinctive headgear! #Christmas

Is that an ‘I need to get out more and worry about less niche things’ or ‘I need to get out more and find more first taxa’?

Great, thank you!

Not at all! Thank you very much for your help 😃 I’ll get it loaded up to iRecord 👍

Can't make the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social Dipterist Day 2025 in Cambridge this Saturday 15th November - fear not! Sign up through the link in the page below and we'll send you the recordings. The wonders of Modern technology...
dipterists.org.uk/events/dipte...

Please share the love ❤️

A long springtail with quite short, 4 segmented antennae. The springtail has black splotches over its back.

Hey @jamesimcc.bsky.social , here’s another one from my compost heap. I think it might be Proisotoma minuta (although I struggled with the ocelli and abdominal seg separation). What do you think?

A few extras

Hi James, I’m back with new photos 😃 do these help?

Yes they seem to have gone through some things! At least they’re in it together? (apart from the ones that have fallen off…)
I suppose it must be especially tempting with ants when they often come as a package deal 🐜🐜🐜

A piece of card cut into a serrated shape with 17 points next to each other. The card is mounted on a pin and most of the points have small beetles (latridiidae) glued onto them. The card is visibly old and yellowed and most of the beetles are damaged, missing their heads and pronotums.

It is generally frowned upon to mount multiple insects on the same pin. It makes databaseing difficult + the chance that multiple species could be mounted together - a nightmare!
Even so, you have to admire the creativity and precision of this example from the UK Latridiidae collection at the NHM

Thanks James! 😃 I will get back to you with some more pics

Here’s the empodium 👍 also is there a technique that allows you to extrude the mouthparts?

@jamesimcc.bsky.social Hi James! I recently learnt that my village has no springtail records so I wanted to try and add a few. Do you think this could be Hypogastrura manubrialis? Think it has some tiny anl spines, 8x8 ocelli, foot with empodium, and skinny mucro. Found in compost

Orchesella flavescens, one of the UK's largest springtails. It's an elongate springtail, with long antennae, often with a differing number of segments on each antenna (but with a maximum of six). It can be identified by the pattern consisting of parallel longitudinal dark lines running the length of the abdomen, contrasting against a paler ground colour. This is a relatively scarce woodland species.

Send me records: I am excited to be taking on the role of national springtail recorder. I have huge shoes to fill, but I hope to continue the progress Peter Shaw made in understanding the taxonomy and biology of the UK's #springtails.

www.brc.ac.uk/scheme/colle...

That’s brilliant, thanks for your help Derek! I wonder how they all ended up in there 🤔

I see what you mean about that rogue forewing now! Here are some more detailed photos

A bright green moss with wide, flat leaves overlapping each other like scales. The leaf cells are large, reflecting the light in glittering diagonal lines.

A more zoomed out view of the flattened moss shoots

Saw this lovely moss on a survey a few weeks ago. It is Hookeria lucens. I like how the field guide account describes jt as ‘a pleasure to find’ 🥰

Thanks Derek! I’m away from my compound microscope at the moment but I’ll try and get some images of one on a slide in the next couple of days