For fear of death, in fear of rot

I found this dead shrew in the garden yesterday. It had done that thing that shrews do, of just keeling over mid forage, presumably of a heart attack. No obvious wounds, but the flies had already arrived and as I knelt down to inspect it several flew off disturbed by my my shadow.

Poking around under the dead shrew I found and potted a 3mm Leiodid beetle which I thought looked good for a Catops species. It had enlarged front tarsi making it a male so thought I might have a chance of getting it to species. But knowing that realistically these are a real pain to do. Well I don't find them easy.

I extracted the aedaegus and then set about picture matching it to all the images in Duff BBI vol 1. Couldn't find a match, so went online to look at pics from my favourite german site. Nothing doing.

In fact the parameres (spindly bits at the side) in my specimen looked decidedly short for a Catops. Another look at the book and I realised that despite similarities my assumption that it was Catops was entirely wrong and that it in fact was in the closely related genus Sciodrepoides. Luckily, there are only two species and the book illustration of S. watsoni was a dead ringer for my specimen,

According to the book, it's a widespread species found on carrion and damp litter across England and Wales and more locally in Scotland. It might be common but it's new to me and new to the garden list.

The post title inspiration is another from my fav band of all time.