New year, new numbers

kitenet's picture

It's been ages since I updated my species group totals, partly for the very dull reason that I've swapped from using MapMate to using iRecord to store my records, and of course the species dictionaries between the two systems don't match up, so it's taken me ages to work out what my total actually is. But I've now got the figures sorted on my profile page, and can see what progress, or lack of it, I've made since I last totted everything up on 19 February 2013 (the totals from that date are still up on Mark's website).

The changes over the last couple of years are shown below, and add up to 303 new species, bringing the total to 4,311. Biggest gains have been in flies (Diptera) and beetles (Coleoptera), no doubt due to their being so many species to find in these groups that you can't avoid adding to them, and also in plants, where the explanation is more due to having been an incompetent botanist for so long that there are still easy ones to find. My birding colleagues will be amazed and enthralled to see the addition of 5 new bird species, bringing my bird life-list to the dizzy heights of 130.

I discover to my shame that I've never recorded a Silverfish, although I see them often enough (but can't find one just at the moment now I want to!). And having recently become a proud life member of the Earthworm Society of Britain it's a bit distressing that I haven't yet recorded a single earthworm (hope they don't chuck me out). So as ever there's lots still to find, and when I start looking at mosses (something I have planned for my second lifetime) there will be no stopping me.

 

List of updated species totals

 

 

Blog images: 

List of updated species totals