Flat-back Millipede

A brighter day than we've had recently, after a wet start. I woke with a nasty headache so cancelled a planned trip to Easton Walled Gardens, but by the afternoon I'd perked up enough to go for a walk round Old Sulehay. 

The wet weather seems to be holding things back at the moment, so not many new flowers, but I spent some time peering under logs, where I found a variety of snails, woodlice and millipedes, including a conglomeration of these rather spectacularly sculptured flat-backed millipedes Polydesmus sp. 

The moss next to it looks fairly ordinary, but proved to be another new species for me, Elegant Bristle-moss Orthotrichum pulchellum. It's a species that's increased dramatically in eastern England in recent years, and tends to favour wet woodland in sheltered places.