Another windy day, so another search of the woodland floor for something of interest. In one small area I turned over several large pieces of bark and branches lying in the leaf litter to uncover quite a mix of gastropods and arthropods without an insect among them.

Among the gastropods were several Cellar Snail (Oxychilus cellarius), a single Netted Slug (Deroceras reticulatum) and a few Black Slug (Arion ater agg.).

The Collembola were represented by numerous slender springtails (Tomocerus sp.) and globular springtails (Dicyrtomina saundersi).

There were several arachnids, multiple individuals of the same unidentified tiny (<2mm) spider and at least three species of Oribatid mite. Only one of these could be identified to species level, Euzetes globulus, of which there were dozens. Of the other two mites one could be placed at genus level, a Phthiracarus sp., and the other at family level, belonging to the Damaeidae. This last family of mites have the interesting habit of carrying soil and plant debris on their backs as camouflage. My image of the last two mites is not great due to their size of around 1.5mm, but hopefully that camouflage debris can be seen.

One undoubted oak branch displayed a small patch of the fungus Common Grey Disco (Mollisia cinerea).

Leaving the woodland I came across some flowering Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) right next to its cousin White Dead-nettle (Lamium album), still only at the flower bud stage.

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