Articles, photographs, real life stories, web links and events from active naturalists are welcome additions to this newsletter. Please send them in. Stories from 250 words with accom- panying photographs will take us all on your journey. Please E-Mail your work to: [email protected]Phil continues his excellent articles around and about the Sefton Coast Hugh Harris visits Risley Moss to study Mosses and Mycos Hugh Harris and Tony Carter provide an insight into slime moulds of the area from separate perspectives. Jim Pearson researches the transmission of parasites and disease from the Honey bee to the Bumble bee A guide to Dragonflies of Lancashire and Merseyside Bob and Norma take a short walk around a section of Brockholes Nature Reserve The National Plant Monitoring Scheme requests help from volunteer naturalists Created by and for Volunteer Naturalists. Edited by Bob Jude Views expressed in this newsletter are those of individual authors. Inside this issue: Phil Smith’s Wildlife Notes 2-3 The ‘new’ Shieldbug Project 3 Mosses and Mycos 4-5 Introduction to the Biodiverse Society 6 The Magic of Slime Moulds 7-8 A Matter of Slime 9 The Transmission of Bee Parasites 10-12 The Dragonflies of Lancashire and Merseyside 12 NWFG 13 A First Visit to Brockholes 14-16 National Plant Monitoring Scheme 17 Events 18-19 Merseyside Nature Friends of Merseyside BioBank Feb/March 2015 Issue 24 Breaking News: Found and recorded by Steve Mcwilliam and posted on MBAN Facebook page were these Australian flatworms (Kontikia ventrolineata (Dendy, 1892)) at Calderstones Park, Liverpool, (18/03/2015). A small flatworm of approx 2cm in length, black with two pale grey stripes down either side of the dorsal mid-line with a dark black stripe between. This species eats small snails and slugs and was found under sandstone rocks in an Ivy rich area of the park along with Porcellio scaber. Naturalists are always welcome at MBB to freely use the available equipment and facilities Sue Marley posted this image of a Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) at Crosby on the MBAN Facebook Page
Merseyside volunteer newsletter for Feb to March 2015.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
There were only nine “rain-days” in February, the first fortnight being com-
pletely dry. Although the regional rainfall for the month was measured at 80%
of normal, I suspect that, as usual, the Sefton Coast had far less than that.
My perception of a dry winter was confirmed by water-table data for Ainsdale
National Nature Reserve provided by Dr Derek Clarke of Southampton Universi-
ty. These show that the mid-winter level was the lowest since 1997/98. This
does not augur well for our hard-pressed Natterjack Toads who rely on winter
recharge of the water-table to flood their breeding pools.
As usual, February was a quiet month for wildlife sightings but a visit to Mere
Sands Wood Nature Reserve was rewarded with close views of four superb
Bullfinches on the feeders. At least 16 species of birds and a Brown Rat were
taking advantage of the free handouts!
Signs of spring always raise the spirits after a long winter. My first singing
Skylark was on 20th, while the following day Common Whitlowgrass was
WILDLIFE NOTES FEBRUARY 2015 - Dr Phil Smith
Page 2 Merseyside Nature
blooming abundantly at Marshside. This tiny white-flowered dune annual is
invariably the first to appear. The first Avocets turned up at both Marshside
and Martin Mere on 16th, the latter reporting 44 by the end of the month.
Snowdrops are always easy to find in February, almost all being the com-
mon Galanthus nivalis. Our best site is at Cabin Hill Wood where it puts on a
spectacular show. A small population of the Green Snowdrop (G. worono-
wii) at Hesketh Road,
Marshside, now supports ten large plants with their characteristic broad,
bright-green leaves but the single individual of Greater Snowdrop (G.
elwesii) that I found a few years ago at Kenilworth Road dunes had no flow-
ers. Another non-native in flower at this time of year is the Corsican Helle-
bore; I counted 35 plants at its long-established colony south of Wicks Lake,
Formby. Also here is a large population of Primrose, the first flowers of
which were just showing, while on the bank above was scatter of Siberian
Squill, naturalised here for many years. Several bushes of Siberian Violet-
willow were already producing their remarkably furry catkins.
Management activity on our coastline continues apace in winter and I was
pleased to see that the National Trust has cleared lots of Gorse on Larkhill
Heath, Formby. To tackle the Gorse problem on parts of Freshfield Dune
Heath Nature Reserve, the Lancashire Wildlife Trust organised an experi-
mental burn of half a hectare, supervised by a fire crew from Formby Com-
munity Fire Station who used it as a training exercise.
Reg Yorke drew my attention to a fascinating 200-year-old account of our
area. A voyage around Great Britain by Richard Ayton was published in
eight volumes around 1814. Volume 2 (pp. 97-100) finds our hero roughing it
on a walk from Liverpool to Southport.:
“I now turned from the shore and proceeding for about a mile and a
half inland arrived at the village of Formby, sheltered by a few
stunted and weather-beaten trees, which, in a neighbourhood gen-
erally so bare of wood, were something to boast of. In the morning,
Bullfinch
Corsican Hellebore
Salix acuifolia
WILDLIFE NOTES FEBRUARY 2015 - Dr Phil Smith
Page 3 Merseyside Nature
I returned to the shore over a waste of sand-hills, on a scale of such
grandeur and covering such an extent of ground, that familiarised as I
was with sand, the effect was something novel to me. They extended for
at least a mile in depth; and were thrown into very striking groups, ex-
actly resembling a range of mountains, with all their ridges, peaks and
precipices. Many of them were fully sixty feet in height, rising precipi-
tously on all sides. They were all very thinly sprinkled with the sea-bent,
and exhibited a sense of frightful and irredeemable barrenness…. I did at
length arrive at some bathing machines….. and paused for a rest at
Southport ….. Amidst a waste of sand-hills, there were planted a dozen
houses …. The situation is as disagreeable as possible; a windy day
smothering you with sand and a calm one suffocating you with heat….
When out of doors, there is no quarter; all is open and exposed, without a
tree or a bush to fly to for shade.”
What a difference a couple of centuries make!
Controlled Burning of Gorse
Over the last year or so a number of MBAN members have noted the lack of records for even some common and widespread species of Shieldbug in North Mer-
seyside (Aaron!). This is not just a lack of records at the LRC, but generally, information on Shieldbugs in our area appears to be rather absent.
With this in mind, keen office based volunteer David Mallaburn, has taken on responsibility for creating resources and direct ing a Shieldbug recording project
through the MBAN membership.
The recording project has been developed entirely by volunteers and will be entirely volunteer led. I have kept my nose well out of it! In a way this will be the
first in what we hope might become an increasing amount of MBAN member activity and ownership over the direction of the group and the first of similarly
developed recording projects.
The project will kick off as of 1st April 2015 and we will provide updates via the Newsletter of Shieldbug records submitted to Merseyside BioBank. All records will
also be provided to Tristan Bantock and the national recording scheme. You are welcome to submit your records direct to the scheme but unfortunately we will
not be able to include them in our feedback.
We would also like to encourage the submission of photos with the records for future newsletter articles and to aid in confirming your species identification!
NORTH MERSEYSIDE SHIELDBUG PROJECT - Ben Deed
Parent Shieldbug (Elasmucha grisea) Common Shieldbug (Palomena prasena)
Slime Mould Fuligo septica whose plasmodial stage is a bright yellow spongy
mass resembling ‘scrambled eggs’.
When asked by the farmer how he could get rid of it, Bruce replied “Wait until
it rains!” The farmer expecting a bio-chemical solution to his cattle-grazing
problem was suitably un-impressed.
It was an impressive talk covering a range of mysterious myxomycetes and I
rank Bruce Ing among the top naturalists whom I wish I’d met sooner.
Acknowledgement: Dr. Irene Ridge, Chair, NWFG. Citation: Kuo, M (2003, Au-
gust) Myxomycetes:
Hugh@MBAN
THE MAGIC OF SLIME MOULDS - Hugh Harris
Page 8 Merseyside Nature
Stemonitopsis typhina, HelenGinger, Wiki Commons: Accessed March 2015
A MATTER OF SLIME - Tony Carter
A contributor to the decomposition of vegetable matter is the Myxomycete.
Known as a Slime Mould this is a misleading description as Myxomycetes are
not moulds and only a few are slimy.
They ‘feed’ on microorganisms found on soil, lawns, litter and wood. They are
single cell organisms but if food is in short supply, they will combine together
to form a structure that can move when they detect a food source. They
engulf bacteria, fungal spores, protozoa etc. When the time is right they are
able to turn into a spore bearing fruit body and the cycle starts again. Be-
cause they produce spores they are often recorded as fungi, which they are
not.
Many are very small but a combined structure can measure in square me-
tres.
Some of the larger ones that can be found locally include Reticularia lycoper-
don or Bark Puffball. This one is from Calderstones Park. Often on dead
Beech trees, the ‘casing’ often breaks to reveal a brown spore mass.
Fuligo septica, commonly known as Dog’s Vomit. One of the largest, the
spores are dispersed by beetles. Very common on many substrates, usually
on wood. This one at Ainsdale.
Following a theme, Mucilago crustacea is known as Dog Sick Slime Mould
(do I detect a lack of imagination?) Common on grass and soil in large patch-
es. Recorded at Sefton Meadows.
Tubifera ferruginosa ( Red Rapberry Slime) was seen at Ainsdale on wood.
Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa or Coral Slime.
The small finger like projections can appear in large masses on fallen trees,
this group at Pennington Flash.
Lycogala epidendron/terrestre (Wolf’s Milk or Toothpaste Slime) is a com-
mon slime mould on wood, seen at Allerton Golf Course. When broken, the
spore mass is either grey or pink, depending on which species it is.
There are hundreds of much smaller species that may only be easily seen if
they form a sizeable group structure. In the adjacent column there are exam-
ples of Stemonitis, Arcyria and Trichia species, all locally sourced.
This Reticularia lycoperdon image in the slime stage was seen on a later
visit to Ainsdale on 6th April 2015.
A MATTER OF SLIME - Tony Carter
Page 9 Merseyside Nature
Tubifera ferruginosa ( Red Rapberry Slime)
Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa or Coral Slime
Lycogala epidendron/terrestre (Wolf’s Milk or Toothpaste
Slime)
Stemonitis
Arcyria
Trichia
Reticularia lycoperdon Ainsdale, 6/4/2015
There are approximately 250 bee species in the UK comprising one species of
honeybee (Apis mellifera), 25 species of bumblebee (Bombus spp. - including 6
species of cuckoo bumblebees) and 225 solitary species.
Until now, Honeybees have been declining largely because of diseases such as
varroa mite, whereas falls in our solitary and social bumblebee populations have
been caused by agricultural intensification and increasing urbanisation over the
past 70 years causing the loss of more than 97% of the UK’s wild flower meadows
thus reducing the foraging and nesting sites for bees. As a result approximately
32% of our UK species have declined with two bumblebee species becoming ex-
tinct and seven listed as priority species on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP).
Bees are important pollinators of many wildflowers (80%) and high value agricul-
tural crops (84%) a valuable (and free) activity worth £560 million per year to
our economy.
Different species of solitary, honeybee and bumblebee have differing tongue lengths allowing for pollination of different crops and wildflowers which have
varied corolla lengths. Therefore protection and conservation of all types is vital. Bumblebees are unique in the UK in causing buzz pollination or ‘sonication’
where crops, such as tomatoes, which hold the pollen tightly on their anthers, can be made to release it by a bumblebee landing on the flower and vibrating
its body, causing the anther to shake and shed its pollen.
Although there is no evidence that Albert Einstein ever made the claim shown in Figure 2, it can be of little doubt that declines in our bee populations will
result in widespread damage both to our economy and our environment.
If the bee populations fell to zero, then Aristotle’s dictum “nature abhors a vacuum” might apply with other pollinators stepping in to fill the gaps.
Whether this would occur sufficiently quickly to avert disaster and
whether the organisms replacing the bees would also bring associated
pests and disease are moot points. Therefore, ignoring threats to our
bee populations and hoping for the best is foolhardy.
However, populations of bumblebees face a new threat, according to scientists
reporting in the Journal ‘Nature’ who have found that two disease agents, de-
formed wing virus (DWV) and Nosema ceranae (a fungal parasite, harboured by
honeybees are spilling over into wild bumblebees.
THE TRANSMISSION OF PARASITES FROM HONEY BEES TO BUMBLE BEE SPECIES - Jim Pearson
Page 10 Merseyside Nature
Figure 2: Albert Einstein
Figure 1: Apis mellifera, Photo: Thomas Bresson
Figure 3: "Bumblebee October 2007-3a" by Alvesgaspar - Own work. Licensed
under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://
In honeybees, deformed wing virus (DWV), one of the most preva-
lent infections in recent years, causes well-defined disease symp-
toms including shrunken, crumpled wings, decreased body size,
deformed abdomen, leg paralysis, and weakness of the neck mus-
cles, discoloration in adults and impaired learning capabilities,
although the mechanisms are unclear. Some infected adults may
appear normal but have a reduced life span.
The severity of its effects are worsened by the presence of the
varroa mite; although deformed wing virus is also found in colonies
not infected with varroa, it appears commoner and more destruc-
tive where varroa is well established, possibly leading to colony
collapse.
The other disease-causing agent, Nosema ceranae is contributing
to worldwide honey bee colony losses. Originally noted in Apis
cerana, the Asiatic honey bee, it causes nosemosis, the most wide-
spread of the adult honey bee diseases. Nosema invades and de-
stroys cells in the bees gut. Affected bees display unconnected
wings, missing hair, dysentery marked by brown faecal marks in
the comb and death.
Bees get infected by eating contaminated water or honey. Its
spores can persist 2 years in faecal droppings and one year in
honey and bee carcasses. It has now been identified in bumblebee
species in England, with studies indicating it is more virulent in
bumblebees than honeybees.
In 26 sites across Great Britain and the Isle of Man, about 11% of
bumblebees were infected with DWV and 7% were infected with
Nosema ceranae. By comparison, about 35% of honeybees carried
DWV and 9% had the fungus.
Bumblebees do not carry the Varroa mite, but the scientists found
that those infected with DWV had a dramatically shortened lifespan;
Nosema ceranae has also been shown to have an impact on bum-
blebee longevity.
According to Professor Brown, the distribution pattern of the dis-
eases indicates transmission is occurring among these species of bee which are sharing parasite strains.
Although not definite, the most likely explanation is that the honeybees are acting as the source of the virus for the bumblebees. The team says that controlling
disease in honeybee hives is vital to stopping the spread.
Dr David Aston, president of the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), claims that beekeepers can reduce the impact of pests and diseases on honeybee colo-
nies using biotechnical controls and practices such as apiary hygiene, regular brood comb changes, ensuring the colonies are strong and well-nourished and
the use of authorised treatments although beekeepers need new effective medications and other and that this should be a high priority for action.
Furthermore, researchers want to investigate whether neonicotinoid pesticides are playing a role in problem.
THE TRANSMISSION OF PARASITES FROM HONEY BEES TO BUMBLE BEE SPECIES - Jim Pearson
Page 11 Merseyside Nature
Figure 4: Deformed wing virus in a honeybee 30 May 2013, Author, Xolani90
Figure 5: An adult female of Varroa destructor, a mite parasiting the honeybee - frontal view, on
the head of a bee nymph. 3 October 2010, 22:54, Uploaded by Jacopo Werther, Author, Gilles San