Worcestershire Record No. 25 November 2008 p. 27

Graham Hill

Although Physica tenella is widely distributed across the UK, and is mostly found on trees and twigs (Dobson (2005, 341) it has turned up in a rather unusual location in Worcester – the back end of the roof gutter on my white van, where it is happily growing on a substrate of dirt rather than paint! This leaves me with a bit of a dilemma, I can let WBRC have a record of it, but as I have been to several places in Worcestershire of the past few months can anyone advise me as to which tetrad it should be recorded. Can anyone advise? So, now I have now to decide whether to wash the van or to drive it to the many 10km squares in the Highlands of Scotland where it has not been recorded (Dobson, 2005, 341) and send in the record to the appropriate Scottish lichen recorder.

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(Note: perhaps we can now start a series on things growing on motor vehicles to compete with What do Buzzards eat and Hornet stories! Or insects conveyed by cars – I have seen a large robberfly from France and a Great Green Bush-cricket Tettigonia viridissima from Devon on cars in Worcestershire – both dead. Or insects on cars – Ann Fells reported an Eyed Ladybird Anatis ocellata sitting on a car headlight in Barnt Green on 10th June 2007. Ed)