A tale of two histerids

Just down the road from me and within spitting distance of the River Cam is some rather uninspiring farmland.

However, it (and some of the vegetation around) hold a couple of rather good beetles, the leaf beetle Chrysomela saliceti and the histerid Saprinus virescens. For the chrysomelid I think it's its only known UK site.

Fellow moth-er and beetler, Bill had found a Saprinus during the week under some knotgrass - where they prey on the associated Gastrophysa polygoni, so I thought I should go and find my own.

I spent a good couple of hours poking about under all the knotgrass I could find but drew a blank. On leaving, I bumped into beetle expert and pan-species lister, Steve Lane who showed me one that he had found up the road in another field edge - untickable and in a pot but still nice to see.

Whilst there he took me through a hedge to the corner of another field where he'd found some good arable plants. All of which were new to me.

Dwarf Spurge Euphorbia exigua

Round-leaved Fluellen Kickxia spuria

Sharp-leaved Fluellen Kickxia elatine

I also saw this, which presumably must be Redshank Persicaria maculosa but doesn't seem 'quite right'.

Steve also mentioned a large manure heap back down the road that was heaving with Lesser Earwigs (cue a guffaw from the clued-up schoolboys) and the staph Astenus pulchellus.

Off I went and got sieving. Both species were easily seen and I also found the rather nice histerid, Atholus bimaculatus, which was a new one for me.

So I did end the day with a new histerid, just not the one I intended.