For the last couple of lunchtimes I've headed out with my sweep net and tray to target specific types of beetle. Many species have an association with particular species of plants and so by checking out these plants you can increase your chances of finding the beetles you are after.
Yesterday I went and looked at some of the Scot's Pines that blew over at the Lodge during the storms a couple of weeks ago. Using the handle of the sweep net to bash the tree's needles over my large plastic tray I soon found a selection of beetles. There were lots of Meligethes pollen beetles (presumably aeneus) and Pine ladybirds. I also found a couple of 18-spot Ladybirds Myrrha octodecimguttata which I don't appear to have recorded before.
There was another much smaller new ladybird for me which was Scymnus suturalis. There were lots of these on most of the branches I checked. Really hairy too.
This other beetle was obviously different but I couldn't for the life of me put a name to it in the field. It almost resembled an Aphodius dung beetle. A bit of sleuthing back at home soon got me to Bark Beetles in the subfamily Scolytinae. This one keyed to Tomicus piniperda aka the Common Pineshoot beetle which can damage commercial forestry and is an invasive species in North America.
Today, I focused on Gorse and Broom for my bush beating. Much of the gorse was in flower and every sweep resulted in tens of Meligethes falling out the flowers.
The second most numerous species was the Gorse weevil Exapion ulcilis. These are tiny little things that are a nice shade of silvery grey. There were dozens in every sample I looked at.
Another weevil that was less numerous on gorse but more so on Broom was Andrion regensteinense. You can see the erect scales at the end of the abdomen that make this quite distinctive. I last saw this one in the middle of winter on broom in the Cairngorms!
There was also a single individual of Exapion fuscirostre which was another new species for me. There's a pattern here. I seem to be racking up the new beetles this year, which is kind of the plan.
Also particularly numerous on gorse and another one that I haven't recorded before was Micrambe ulicis. These are really small beetles at under 2mm.
A productive way to spend 30 minutes. Now need to work out which plants to target next...
The one I always keep an eye out for are the mines of Orchestes fagi on fresh Beech leaves. Adults are currently present elsewhere too, but the sight of that first larval mine means that spring is officially here. Hawthorn blossom is usually pretty ace.
ReplyDeleteYep, there's very little hawthorn at the Lodge and there's one lonely bush that always gets the best longhorns :)
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