Adult Caddisflies at Lower Winskill

I set up the Craven Conservation Group moth trap at Lower Winskill Farm so that we could have an activity looking at moths on 28-30 August. And of course Caddis.

I hope Sharron Flint  will be able to identify them for me..

Hydropsychidae 
Caddis have long antennae.. I wonder if I really need to photograph all the antenna for the sake of identfication.

I had said to Sharron 

"We are Moth Trapping at Lower Winskill. We won't get many Caddis because there is no stream there" She just looked at me. !!  (with an expression "You don't know how wrong you are)

OK. Above is Caddis no 1. Three more to come. and that does not count the 6+ that got away

Caddis number 2

This turned out to be the same as:

Caddis number 4

Ah, all the remaining three on the Wednesday and the one I caught on the Thursday seem to be the same.

When I sent the picture to Sharon she said
"You have Potamophylax sp there Judith. We have 3 sp in UK. Large Cinnamon Sedge! P.cingulatus, P.latipennis and P.rotundipennis. Need separation based on genitalia. At least we can get a genus from the wing pattern. Family, Limnephilidae."
and "Did you keep any voucher specimens?"



It was so windy on the last evening we might not find anything.. We'll see.


On the Friday morning I caught just one.




I think this one is Limnephilus lunatus

with the half/crescent moon "cut" into its end wing

Eco Explorers 2: 28-30 Aug. Book Now!

Fun for all!! See pictures of last months Eco Explorers Activities

See pictures of Eco Explorers 1 that met at the end of July:

Please encourage your friends to book. The more people we know are coming the more different workshop sessions we can organise.
We are grateful to friends in Craven Conservation Group who are helping run some of the workshops

and to Stories in Stone /Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust and to the Settle Rotary Club for financial support towards running the event.

We value everyone who comes!!!

Mid Yorkshire Fungus Group visit to Cliff Castle Museum Gardens

We'd had such a good time at Bolton Strid Woods last month that I made a big effort to get to Cliff Castle Museum Gardens for the foray this month.

The Craven Branch of the Mid Yorkshire Fungus Group meets on the first Wednesday of the month, and is usually let by Archie McAdam and Ron Golightly

Here we are, setting forth on Wed 7 August. 
No time to stop at the greenhouses and cafe.

 (Note the Mid Yorkshire Fungus Group is affiliated to the YNU Also Craven Conservation Group members are welcome to attend a meeting of MYFG (and then may be join the MYFG if they want to come to more)







Actually we soon found fungi under our feet on the lawn:- 

Agrocybe pediades (Common Fieldcap)

Archie explained a useful tip to help sort some of the little brown jobs - it is important to know whether you can pick of the "skin" off a cap with a pin, or whether the surface just breaks up into chunks.  
this videoed fungus was a Psathyrella - 




There are pretty pictures in this blog. 

What you can't hear is the noise of a very loud "reverse vacuum cleaner": a  man was blowing leaves /grass cuttings/ to keep the paths safe.

We progressed down hill, out of earshot of him but into earshot of some large machinery  "Bang, Bang, Bang!" with adjacent huge yellow pipes lying on the grass. 
"Excuse me, we are looking for fungi." I politely said to the workmen. "What are you doing?"
"We are replacing the gas pipes, all the way up this side of the land," he said. "The old ones are leaking gas."

They were right about the leaking gas. We soon walked out of earshot of the workman - but not out of scent of the gas all the way up the hillside.

We all survived.
What we do for science!

Back to fungi:

Holding up some Oak Mazegill-with the felled oak tree in the background on which it had been growing

It was only August 7th, so the fungi were not profuse. But
Archie seems capable of finding, and mostly naming fungi on nearly every twig!  Those he could not name he took home.

See the black pimples on the black backgound on this thin branch




They are Eutypa lata.

Ascomycota; Sordariomycetes; Xylariales; Diatrypaceae; Eutypa;

And see the tiny pink dot on the branch (top right, slightly out of focus.)  That turned out to be a Nectria episphaeria - which grows on effete ascomycetes )


I found a larger fungus, with a deep yellow slightly slimy cap. It seemed rather slug eaten - but Archie was interested - A Russula - Its gills and spores had a much stronger colour than white, ..  some version of pale pink or beige..







Archie had a multi-access or synoptic key for identifying Russulas for Kibby's book. 
Later determined (after Archie had had a discussion on Facebook with people in NWFG, and with microscope work) as Russula acetolens

This has a slimy cap.




Here is a yellow jelly fungus: Tremella mesenterica


I pulled a piece of bark off the log further along on the above log and underneath  were some tine white dots, that with a hand lens looked a little like cup fungi but had hairs round the margin. Here they are next to a 1mm scale (picture (C) Archie Macadam)




Archie took them home and worked out they are not Ascomycetes (cup fungi) they are actually a Basidiomycete called
Lachnella villosa 







I wandered into the woods and found this small but prolific fungus - which I have seen before but not named. Now I have learned its name: It was growing on a variety of dead twigs including brambles  
Marasmiellus ramealis - "Twig Parachute"  there is a good description here

Marasmiellus ramealis - "Twig Parachute"

Marasmiellus ramealis - "Twig Parachute"

Marasmiellus ramealis - "Twig Parachute"

We made use of the picnic tables to spread out our finds.

An earthball cut open. These are NOT edible

Schizophyllum:-
The gills are split so they have two edges - see the closer photos below.

A Marasmius with "threads like Honey fungus"

Boletus (now Neoboletus) luridiformis  Scarletina Bolete

Yet another photo of the same table
- but with the museum in the background.

After we had given our thanks to Archie and people had departed I went into the museum to buy a small present for a friend who I would be gatecrashing for coffee in a little while - I found some "Cliff Castle Biscuits".

"Oh, but we have fungi in the museum" said the man at the till, and directed me to the natural history section.

They do indeed.

Impressive puff ball in the centre

What a nice display cabinet.

.. Whilst at the museum I saw examples of the prehistoric cup markings on rock that were mentioned in the "Bradford Faith Trail" that I attended the same week and may write about... Maybe 4000 years old.   I am sure the people enjoyed finding fungi 4000 years ago too.










Finally on  the way home to Settle at "Hellifeld Flashes" I stopped at the Lake to see if there were any waders on it. Locals and passers by like to see the birds here.

..but could not see the lake..

Bit difficult to see as they are digging up the soil all around it.!!!








We have another MYGF fungus foray on the first Wednesday 4th September. This time it will be to near Austwick.

Caloplaca flavescens

Learn your Lichens Series No.  14 1. Arthonia radiata 2. Caloplaca flavovirescens 3. Acrocordia conoidea 4. Squamarina cartilaginea 5. Xanthoria parietina 6. Lecanora gangaleoides 7. Physcia tenella 8. Lepraria incana 9. Porpidia tuberculosa 10. Psilolechia lucida 11. Lecanora soralifera  12. Opegrapha gyrocarpa 13. Aspicilia calcarea 14. Caloplaca flavescens

Caloplaca means beautiful patches

I think of this lichen as "Common orange pleated-edge limestone lichen"

flavescens means becoming yellow, or yellowish 

The edge of the thallus is pleated or "placodioid".

It grows on lots of limestone walls around Settle.


Here it is growing at the porch entrance to Horton in Ribblesdale Church

Can you see it here? The bright orange one.