Discovering the flora and fauna in a small square of Portmellon Valley
This is a very common millipede but small at around 10mm long and little over 0.5mm in diameter. It is pale with a row of dark brown spots along each side. The first few segments have no spots but are mottled brown in colour. It has eye spots arranged in a very narrow triangle.
It lives in moist soil beneath leaf litter or under the bark of living and dead trees.
The logs that Mr C was moving on Sunday were rich with compost and leaf litter and I spotted two types of millipede. The flat-backed millipede is a stocky little fellow with a flat segmented body and many legs. It is orangey-brown in colour and measures around 2cm in length.
The difference between millipedes and centipedes is that millipedes have two pairs of legs per body segment, and centipedes have just one.
Most millipedes are herbivores, eating decaying vegetation that has fallen to the ground. The flat-backed millipede uses its flat body shape to move around the soil and leaf litter in search of food.
This was a noticeably stripy worm. The compost worm has dark red bands alternating with pale pink or yellowish bands. There are two types of stripy earthworm. The Brandling Worm (Eisenia fetida) is also striped but has a red-brown saddle, the same as the main body colour, and is shorter and slimmer. This one has a paler saddle and is around 7cm long. The one below may have been a Brandling Worm, but I couldn’t see the saddle and it was still quite long, so perhaps not. Anyway, the picture below shows off the stripes much better. I spotted these worms in the rich compost sandwiched between old logs, which is exactly the sort of place they love to live in.
Mr C was moving some established logs as he was going to be strengthening the ramp, which had been built mainly of pampas cores, logs and garden waste and was gradually sinking. I stood ready with my camera and spotted a variety of mini-beasts.
This woodlouse looked rather large to me. It is one of the largest native woodlice in the British Isles – they can grow up to 16 mm long. It didn’t look particularly shiny, but the blotchy pattern on the scales matched and juveniles have a rougher texture. It lives in moist habitats like leaf litter and decaying logs, and feeds on dead organic matter.
It’s still difficult to get down into the watermeadow, as it remains flooded. I’ve seen a few things on the ramp and steps on the right-hand side, but rather neglected the stone steps down on the left under the sea buckthorn. I spotted the small earthworm. I hadn’t seen a worm down there so far and I was quite pleased. There are nearly 30 species of earthworm in the UK, divided into three behavioural types:
This one, being small and reddish, was possibly a compost, or tiger worm, which lives above soil level. Then I noticed that it was worming its way across some moss, and I realised that that there was a whole section of plant-life that I had overlooked!
Springy turf moss (Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus) – is a soft, bright green mat, with short red stems. It is commonly found on lawns and damp woodland and is also known as ‘electrified cat’s tail’ moss from the stems which shoot out in all directions.
Further down the steps was a patch of velvety, mossy fronds. I think it is a type of Feather Moss. I’m not completely sure what type it is but it is likely to be Rough-stalked feather moss (Brachythecium rutabulum), which is also known as ‘ordinary moss’, as it is another of our most common moss species. It has pointed leaves and branching stems and can be found in woodlands, hedgerows, and lawns.
