01.04.18 - Skeffington Wood

As part of the NatureSpot Mind the Gap campaign, I made the effort to get out to Skeffington Wood, even though the weather was less than inviting. One of the reasons there are gaps in the NatureSpot coverage is because access is difficult in some of these areas. As part of the Leighfield Forest SSSI, Skeffington Wood is seriously under-recorded, but at least access is easy because there is a road ("Not suitable for motor vehicles") running though it. This was very much a reconnaissance and only a first effort at recording. One interesting difference between two very similar woods, close in distance and one week apart, was that in contrast to my last trip, there was a complete absence of Symphylans at this site. In my opinion, this is because while there are some logs on the ground, the timber is very fresh and there is no rotting wood around. The whole wood is very "tidy", heavily managed for pheasant shooting and ill-served as an SSSI.


Sampling under bark/logs on the ground, Orchesella cincta was predominant, and I also recorded Tomocerus minor, Isotoma viridis and Lepidocyrtus lignorum:


Lepidocyrtus lignorum, scales on ant1+2


Brushing from tree trunks Orchesella cincta was again the predominant species. In some cases there were patches of moss on the ground and sampling from these Entomobrya albocincta was abundant, with Lepidocyrtus lignorum also present, and Isotomurus unifasciatus:





To my knowledge, these are the first records of springtails from this site.