The Diptera of Lancashire and Cheshire: Picture-wing Flies (Opomyzidae, Pallopteridae, Platystomatidae, Tephritidae, Ulidiidae). This report provides the first regional checklist for the acalyptrate Diptera families Opomyzidae, Pallopteridae, Platystomatidae, Tephritidae and Ulidiidae. These have been collectively termed the “picture-wing” flies because of the attractive wing patterns in most species. Overall statistics on recording activity are given...
The Diptera of Lancashire and Cheshire: Muscoidea, Part I
This report provides a new regional checklist for the Diptera families Muscidae and Fannidae. Together with the families Anthomyiidae and Scathophagidae these constitute the superfamily Muscoidea. Overall statistics on recording activity are given by decade and hectad. Checklists are presented for each of the three Watsonian vice-counties 58, 59, and 60 detailing for each species...
Wildlife Notes: November 2022
Just for a change, November was a rather damp month, with measurable rain on as many as 18 days. Even so, rainfall amounts for the region were about average. Therefore, the sand-dune water-table rose by only 5 cm, as measured at the Devil’s Hole. It was a generally mild month here with no frost at...
The Newest Green Beach at Ainsdale, Sefton Coast – 2022 update
Floristic data were collected each year from 2011 to 2022 on embryo dunes and an associated wetland that began to form on Ainsdale beach in 2008 as a southern extension of Birkdale Green Beach. Named the ‘Newest Green Beach’ and eventually covering 2.4 ha, this feature developed rapidly by accretion of blown sand, initially around Puccinellia maritima (Common Saltmarsh-grass), to form a dune ridge over 4 m in height, protecting a seasonally-flooded primary dune-slack. By 2022, 245 vascular taxa (species subspecies and hybrids) had been recorded for the feature. Annual totals initially showed an almost linear increase in the number of plants over time.