What we have discovered about scarlet malachite beetles and the consequences for the conservation of the species We’ve had the pleasure of working on the scarlet malachite beetle conservation project for many years. Their species is in decline in the UK. We’re attempting to reduce that decline. Here are some of our findings. Thatch Courtship […]
The Conservation of the Scarlet Malachite Beetle Read More »
Celebrating Nature The weekend before last we were lucky enough to have a stall at the National Botanical Garden of Wales, as part of the Celebrate Nature event organised by the For the Love of Nature team – what a fabulous bunch of people. It was an amazing event supporting mental health charities, bringing together
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A Study in Scarlet Introduction – Breakthroughs We had some breakthroughs in 2021 and 22. Slowly but surely through managing and monitoring our little scarlet malachite beetle nursery cottages, we accumulated enough confidence to have another go at captive breeding, really just to find out what the larvae (beetle grubs) eat. Are they specialists on
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It’s all about the Ladybird Spider for us at the moment. Last month we conducted another ladybird spider translocation on the Dorset heaths. Today we launch our newest book, Lacey the Ladybird Spider along with our Ladybird spider T-Shirts. This Easter, our ladybird spiders will be on CBBC’s Deadly Predators starring Steve Backshall… he gave
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Seahorse Conservation In the early 1990s I helped found the Fish and Aquatic Invertebrate Advisory Group for what was then the Zoo Federation of Britain and Ireland (now BIAZA). I also designed the logo. Among our first project species were seahorses. Not only were they in dire need of conservation attention and awareness, they are
Chocoholics and arachnophiles unite! How hot chocolate may help save a spider. An update on the conservation of the ladybird spider project. I’ve just realised that I haven’t given you a full run down on the Ladybird spider conservation project. I’ll get that written and to you in the next few days. You can take
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Updates on our conservation projects First the bad news Not really conservation news, but in 2020 we had two cars die in Dorset. One mission was delivering Barberry plants to Butterfly Conservation. The other was to survey ladybird spider sites and deliver the plants that hadn’t quite made it before. For us this is one
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Glutinous Snail Updates How it all began Like school boys with marbles my old friend Pat Wisniewski and I would discuss, with excitement the possibility of establishing a conservation breeding project for the extremely rare glutinous snail; Europe’s rarest freshwater snail. Considered extinct in Germany, Austria and Poland as well as in England; restricted, in
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Introduction To Neil Garrick Maidment It is an honour to introduce our latest guest blogger, Neil Garrick-Maidment – Executive Director of the Seahorse Trust. I have worked occasionally with Neil since the mid-2000s and knew of him long before then as a Dr. Dolittle of seahorses, although it was success with other species that led
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Myxas moments… We’ve had some incredibly rewarding times surveying the glutinous snail at its only known site in the UK. Anyone reading this might wonder how that could possibly be! How can you have a great day looking for snails? Well… this particular snail is considered to be Europe’s rarest freshwater mollusc. We are working
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