Last Sunday, I attended the inaugural East of England Coleopterists Meeting at Wicken Fen, brilliantly conceived and organised by Bill Mansfield. Some of the UK's best known coleopterists were there, all those names that you see as authors of the standard keys and papers. It was a chance to chat to other beetlers.
There were a number of really interesting talks in the morning
Stuart Warrington – Beetles and Wicken Fen
Dan Asaw – trapping in vane!
Phoebe Miles – Back from the Brink; the Wormwood Moonshiner (Amara fusca) a rare Brecklands beetle.
Mark Telfer – The discovery of Bracteon argenteolum on quicksand in the Brecks
Mark Gurney - Weevils of the National Trust
 |
| Mark Telfer giving useful advice on how not to die while beetling! |
......and then the afternoon was given over to beetling. I plumped for some water beetling as pretty much the only ones I've seen are those that have turned up in my moth trap. We stuck to some of the especially created dragonfly ponds and managed to find a few of the more common species. Most of which were new to me.
 |
| Berosus affinis |
 |
| Acilius sulcatus |
 |
| Haliplus sp. |
 |
| Hyphydrus ovatus |
I suspect I need to get myself a net now and try and add aquatic beetling to the ever growing list of techniques for finding them.
No comments:
Post a Comment