Mushroom beetles

A walk round the work reserve this week revealed lots of emerging toadstools. The Fly Agarics Amanita muscaria were just coming out and were looking rather resplendent with their smart colours.

There were several other patches where numbers of toadstools had emerged.

Most were relatively fresh but there were a few that had started to go over and had attracted a number of flies and beetles to the rotting flesh.

There were a few of these rather prettily marked Lordithon trinotatus, one of five species of Lordithon found in the UK. The only other species I've seen so far is lunulatus. 

There were also lots of Proteinus, another genus of staph. This one is P. brachypterus but I have a few others to look at. You can just make out the red first antennal segment below. At just under 2mm these are really small beetles.