A garden lyon

I ended up mowing the grass after work this evening but during this process I intermittently got the suction sampler out and had a quick go on some of the patches of ground-ivy that cover some of the drier garden edges. It's coming into flower and I was checking it on the off chance that I might find Trachys scrobiculatus aka Ground-ivy Jewel Beetle.  There are records to the north and records to the south and it's the sort of thing more easily found with a big old vacuum cleaner. However, no luck today. Not sure of its requirements beyond Ground-ivy, perhaps the soil here isn't quite right. Who knows. Won't stop me looking though.

I did find a number of beetles. Two or three of which were new to me. One though was easily identifiable - the others need to wait to be dissected.

I saw a thin-necked, small staph in the sample and to the naked eye it didn't look quite right to be a Rugilus. I potted it and brought it inside for a closer look.

This is a species of Astenus. There are seven possible species in the UK to choose from. The first bit of the key is around the number of long hairs sticking out the sides of the pronotum. The choices are 1 or 2, or at least 4. This one has 4. So that bit was easy and takes it to one of two species.

Next is the extent of the yellow patch on the elytra. Is it just the ends that are yellow or does it extend up the centre a bit too?

Definitely that last one.

That makes this Astenus lyonessius. According to the book this is the most commonly encountered species in the genus, but it's new for me and it's the second species I've seen. I've found A. pulchellus before in big farmyard manure heaps.

Another day, another new beetle. The hawthorn is just about to flower so they'll be some bush beating beetling posts in the offing soon I imagine.

I'll leave you with a bit of related audio enjoyment...