As the water come rushing in

Storm Dennis has been and gone, and flood waters have been rising again locally. Not as bad as in many places but back approaching the post Christmas levels.

Am on half term duties for a couple of days, so the kids and I decided to go and have a look at water levels along the main Ouse drains north of Cambridge. Cunningly stashed in the boot of my car were sieves and tray plus a pooter and variety of tubes. So on arrival out the beetling gear came.

Grabbing handfuls of older material and putting it through the sieve, revealed a few beetles. But not that many species. The three main species were all Bembidion.

Bembidion aeneum

Bembidion obtusum

Bembidion guttula - you can even see a scrap of wing popping out between the elytra

I decided to move and have a look at some of the more recently collected debris. This stuff was still very wet and had only been deposited in the last 48 hours.

After an initial sieve only revealed springtails I decided to take a couple of bags of it to stick in the extractor back at home.

I left it in the warm for a couple of hours before having an initial check. There were a number of flea beetle species as well as a Helophorus sp. and a Rybaxis longicornis.

Flea beetle central

There was also this Crepidodera that I instantly knew was going to be plutus. Having previously misidentified a couple of aurata as this species. It was definitely a case of 'you'll know it when you see it'. The antenna colour change and elytra shape are so distinctive. 

I decided to have a look at the Helophorus. This must be one of my most hated beetle genera. Lo and behold this one turned out to be a brevipalpis, just like every one I look at. One day I'll find another species...

I still have a few left to ID but hopefully can make some progress with the more tricky flea beetle species. Plus I'll need to check the extractor again tomorrow and do another bag!

Thanks to Skev for a nudge on the blog title.