Thanks for the big welcome everyone. I've worked at the Natural History Museum for aons, first on fossil reptiles and birds, then transferred to Zoology to work on Indo-Pacific marine fish, and most recently in public access to the collections and advisory services. I love it when we get stuff sent in for identification which is so weird, the boffins are baffled.
The only reason I chose the name sandworm was because the site won't let me use any of my usual names, and I happened to have some photographs I took in Namibia on my desk. For those who haven't read Frank Herbert's epic story, largely set on the planet Arrakis, known as Dune; watching the desert for "worm-sign" is something the native inhabitants do a lot. The first time I went to the Namib desert, I stood atop a big dune and imagined giant sandworms as in the story. Not that I'm some enormous, scaly thing mind you
Thanks for the tip about postcode botany. I think I've used this once before and got a shock at the length of the floral list. I live in South Bedfordshire, next to sand quarries, which make an interesting environment when the diggers move on. Botany-wise, I'm most interested in the plants used in medicine during the 17th Century. Yep, I'm one of those living history saddoes and you might encounter me on a visit to some English Heritage site one day. Be afraid !