So looking through the large number of beetles that I have left to ID from the previous week, my eyes were drawn to this particular individual.
I spent a fair amount of time going round the houses trying to even assign it to family. I ended up eyeballing the families page at UK beetle Recording Site to try and get somewhere. It turned to be another case of 'if you can't get it to family, it will be a tenebrioid'!!
At this point it was obviously in the genus Palorus. But there are two closely related species subdepressus and ratzeburgii, both of which appear to be pretty rare. In fact either would be new for Cambridgeshire as far as I can see.
The shape of the pronotum and the front of the head seem to be key in distinguishing these two from each other. This individual's pronotum is widest in about the middle and is continuously rounded. It also has raised areas around the front of the head.
That should make this one Palorus subdepressus. There are only 12 records on NBN, the nearest being west Norfolk. These can be imported in food stuffs but there is some suggestion of them now being in the wild on or near fungi on broad leaved trees.
The other name for this beetle is the Depressed Flour Beetle, I guess because of the ridges and depressions on the head, but then again it just might be struggling with life.
I've got a couple of similar beetles potted that will not settle for scrutiny and too small for me to card. Passing them to Graham Finch as may be notable for VC55. I think they're Tribolium sp. or Palorus sp.
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