Small and brown

I picked up a couple of other beetles yesterday whilst on the walk, both were small.......and brown.

The first was one of a mating pair of flea beetles and the wee fella's wee fella was literally hanging right out. On closer inspection the aedagus took up a considerable part of the abdominal cavity and really is quite something to behold. 

The beetle in question is Neocrepidodera transversa and at 4mm was fairly easy to key out. But as it was a flea beetle I knew immediately which family it was in and where to begin my search. The other beetle wasn't quite so easy.

I went all round the houses with this 2.8mm beetle. I eventually asked for a pointer on family and was told to look at the Coccinellidae. It's only a blooming ladybird. From there, it's easy. Coccidula rufa, the Red Marsh Ladybird and one of the inconspicuous ladybird species. This one likes wet habitats where it feeds on aphids. It's very widely distributed so perhaps surprising that I'd not come across one before.