The Highland Biological Recording Group

Announcements
with any items for inclusion, or other comments on the website.

For up-to-the-minute news and the opportunity to discuss aspects of Highland wildlife, please visit the HBRG Members' Forum.

While COVID-19 (Coronavirus) remains a threat it is vital that naturalists follow the latest government advice in order to prevent the spread and transmission of infection. Please continue to observe and record. Even if confined to home and garden you can do a lot.
The HBRG Social Wasp Atlas project Please assist with our new atlas project, mapping the distribution of our social wasps. All the information you need is here. Anyone can help with this, whether just collecting dead wasps from your house or garden, or becoming competent at identifying the different species.

A tiny mystery mite on Goat Willow Salix caprea has come to our notice in Ross-shire. We know little about it, other than the family – Tenuipalpidae – though it is probably a species of Brevipalpus. At present (March 2020) we know it only from 3 trees in Strathpeffer (NH45) and one on the shore near Rosemarkie (NH75), but it must be more widespread. It does seem to be rather scarce in the area, on only a small percentage of trees. More details are here.
	Photographs © Murdo Macdonald.

Winter Aconite is now in flower. If you have it in your garden or encounter it in parks etc. please check it for the smut fungus Urocystis eranthidis which shows as large powdery black lesions on the stems and leaves. We have only one record, from the Black Isle - the only record on NBN Atlas in Scotland - but there must be more around. See if you can add to the map. If you do find it, email us with all the usual details, please.
Photograph © Malcolm Storey.

Now is the time to look for the February Red Stonefly Brachyptera putata, something of a Highland speciality, if you find yourself strolling along a riverbank.

Please copy HBRG into any reports.