No wucking forries

On yesterday's lunchtime walk, the sun was out and the air was warmish. There were a fair few insects on the wing but I decided to have a look in some rotting fungus and birch branches to see what I could find.

Everything was small. Really small. I was struggling even with my hand lens to get to family level so potted a few beetles for later identification.

First up was this tiny staph, only 2.4mm. I'm still struggling but the suggestion has been that it's one of the Omaliinae. There are free keys here and here so will see if I can get it to at least genus.

Next up was something a bit bigger...well 2.5mm. I knew immediately that this was a new species for me. I did what I usually do and went to the UK Beetle Recording page and eyeballed the family pictures. It looked to be one of the Cerylonidae so used the free key on Mike Hackston's site. It easily keyed to Cerylon histeroides which is the most common species. But new to me, and a rather cool looking beetle.

Then came the really small ones. Only 1.7mm and easily the smallest beetle I've yet to identify. Looking down the microscope the first thing that jumped out were 2 plate like protrusions. One on the head and one on the pronotum. I'd already guessed that this was going to be one of the Ciidae and luckily I found the commonest and the easiest to put a name to. Cis bilamellatus. Apparently this species originates from Australia and SE Asia, but was introduced to Kew Gardens in the 19th century with fungi and has since spread around Britain.

And the title of the post? Well the beetle is an Ozzie and easy to identify so the Antipodean spoonerism seemed most apt.