The landhopper Arcitalitrus dorrieni (a terrestrial amphipod that looks similar to the common sandhopper you see around the strandline on the beach) was originally described from the gardens of Tresco on the Isles of Scilly in the mid-1920s, where it was regarded as an immigrant from Australia. It's likely that the landhopper probably uses potted plants as its main mode of dispersal.
It was first shown to me in 1995 by Paul Llewellyn in Caswell Valley, where it was superabundant under the Holm Oaks adjacent to the car park. We found it to be less abundant, but widespread throughout much of the woodland there and so was clearly well-established. In recent times I have heard of more records e.g.
Ian Morgan first saw the species under Cherry Laurel leaf litter at Furnace, Llanelli in 1999, and subsequently in Denham Avenue, Llanelli 2002-2010, Llwynhendy 2009 and at his current address Pwll in 2010. All vc44, Carms.
Graham Motley wrote that it occurred at ‘Bracken Road, Neath (behind the cricket and rugby grounds) from 1994 to 1997. I remember numbers being much lower though in the summer of 1997 - presumably they suffered due to the prolonged very cold spell in January of that year.’
The map below shows the records I have collated to date (updated with additional records 01-Dec-10. Thanks to contributors):
Dr Michael R. Wilson
Head of Entomology Section
Department of Biodiversity & Systematic Biology
National Museum of Wales
Cardiff, CF10 3NP, UK
mike.wilson@museumwales.ac.uk
12 comments:
I am in Plymouth, Devon. I have these in my garden and they are everywhere. Anything i lift...there they are!!
I also do a bit of cleaning and have seen them in the communal hall/stairs in a block of flats. They are mostly dead ones i find, but they are still coming in from outside.
I am in Plymouth, Devon. I have these in my garden and they are everywhere. Anything i lift...there they are!!
I also do a bit of cleaning and have seen them in the communal hall/stairs in a block of flats. They are mostly dead ones i find, but they are still coming in from outside.
I have just found this page after trying to find out what the creatures were that seemed to be nesting under two tea towels waiting to be washed on my porch floor. There were about 20 of them. I have never seen them in the garden or anywhere else before. Must have come in through the cat flap....
I was fetching the bowl from our wild hedgehog feeder this morning (in Swansea, South Wales) and found one of these hopping about inside. My first thought was, "Crikey, that's a big flea!". I took a few photos with the microscope and threw it back outdoors.
We have loads of these landhoppers in our garden in South Devon in a village on the Dart (Stoke Gabriel). They seem to climb under the French doors at night time and we find quite a few dead ones on the floor inside the house - always dead when inside though- I've read this is because they don't have enough moisture to survive indoors. Beats me why they come in!
Bangor Northern Ireland I have them in my garden
We live in Paignton, South Devon and we have them in our garden. They live under pots, buckets or anything else where it's dark and damp. They jump quite high when disturbed. In 5-10 seconds they seem to run out of steam and just crawl away! We don't mind them so much because we always know that they are going to be there when we move a pot or bag of garden waste for example. We wish we had more newts to keep on top of the problem!
I have them all over my garden in Ambleston, Pembrokeshire.
There are millions of these in my garden in Dunvant, Swansea.
I have a lot at my house, finding them dead on the floor, I think they getting here from the garden on my cat. Hastings, East Sussex
My back garden is full of them, here in Worcestershire.
Lots of them in my garden in gowerton, swansea - my chickens love them :)
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