Turning ground

This weekend has been all about gardening. This evening I feel every one of my forty something years. My back aches and my knee has gone funny. The decade of my 40s is seeing some serious physical deterioration. On the whole I'm fairly fit but after two days of digging, lifting, planting and crawling around on my hands and knees I feel a decade older than I am.

Despite all that I still managed 2 new beetles today plus there have been another couple of lifers earlier in the week.

The best of the bunch came whilst I was turning over some earth ahead of putting in some plants. I must have disturbed an ants' nest as there were loads running about, I noticed something else that was walking oddly and looked staph-like but I didn't have my glasses on (age again!) so I picked it up and potted it for a later look.

Under the microscope it looked really distinctive (and the reason for its funny walk became evident).

I quickly worked out it was in the genus Achenium. There are two species in the UK both of which are rarely encountered as they are subterranean and live in cracks in the ground.  A quick look at its nethers told me it was a girl so I wasn't going to be able to have a look for a distinctive aedeagus. 

Long story, short. After some really helpful insight from fellow beetlers on social media. The consensus was that this was A. humile. The paler colour and most importantly the shorter elyta in comparison to the pronotum. 

I then did what I should have done at the beginning and measured it. 6.7-6.8mm. The other species, depressus never gets below 7.5mm. So humile it is.

The other new beetle from the garden today was Gonodera luperus. This is a species of tenebrioid and it looks a bit like a monster Isomira murina. I swept this from grass whilst I was having my morning coffee.

Earlier in the week I was back at the compost heap for another look. Things have really quietened down  since the first hot day of the year. The mix of beetles has changed over time and I've definitely got my eye in so am better at picking out the beetles that are new.

A couple that caught my eye both turned out to be new beetles for me.

The first was another addition to the growing list of Philonthus species from the heap. This was P. discoideus.

The other one was the rather cool, large-eyed, triangular headed Oxytelus sculptus. 

Apparently it is known to occur in compost heaps but is rare or absent in many areas. There are a few records to the east and north of me so perhaps not a surprise.

I'll finish with some appropriate music. Taken from a great debut (I think) album, the William Orbit production is evident from the start 😅