My most recent eight new species have all come from close to home, in fact actually in my home for one of them.

Last year I noticed a plant on a nearby road verge, with yellow flowers and four petals, and spent some time trying to work out what sort of crucifer it was, but failed to come up with a satisfactory ID. It's flowering in the same place this year, and I again spent some time puzzling over the crucifer (cabbage family) pages, before it struck me that the leaves looked a bit like a poppy. So I tried the poppy family instead, and there it was - Greater Celandine ...

Just dropped a big illustrated blog post here: http://skevsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ketton-quarry-04052014.html

I was walking through the botanical gardens on the university campus where I study when I felt something land on my face. 

I took it off my face and I instantly knew it wasn't a shieldbug species I had seen before. The lovely insect that landed on my face was the hairy shieldbug Dolycoris baccarum, previously known as the sloe shieldbug. This species is very common although I had never seen it before so it was a nice start to my walk. The walk got better as I found some toothwort (Lathraea squamaria) in a shady area of the gardens, another tick for me....