Trawling through the last lot of beetles from the moth traps I had another couple of Bark Beetles to sort out. I've found a few of this group in the garden this year, having never previously seen a single one. Not sure whether it's been a good year for them or if it's just that I've been better at finding stuff.
The first one was small and looked like it had a punk hair cut. It's the second garden record of Polygraphus poligraphus. Not a well recorded or widely distributed species.
The second one was one I hadn't seen before. It easily keyed to Scolytus, a new genus for me too. These ones look like they have forgotten to bring all their abdomens with them.
This is even more apparent when viewed from the side. Luckily, this one keyed out at the first couplet as it had a distinctive median process (sticky out bit) on the 2nd visible sternites (underside of abdomen). I have absolutely no idea of the function of this. Answers on a postcard...
Anyway, the sticky out bit makes it Scolytus multistriatus, also known as the Small Elm beetle, one of the vectors of the dreaded Dutch Elm disease, although not the main one. That prize goes to Scolytus scolytus, the Large Elm Bark Beetle. Presumably this species feeds on the elms still found in local hedgerows.
They are a bit of a bugger to card neatly, as their heads are tucked away and their legs take a wee bit of teasing out. Amazing little things though.
I guess most of us who are into wildlife keep lists. It's only natural to put names to things and then to keep a record of what you've seen. For some it will just be in their heads for others it will be in notebooks and on comprehensive spreadsheets.
My first list was as a seven or eight year old when I put a tick next to every bird I had seen in my copy of Bertel Bruun's Birds of Britain and Europe andI had a tally in pencil at the back which totted the number up.
For years my most sacred of lists was my excel spreadsheet tallying my world list of birds. It was the only one I cared about, and I updated it religiously after each trip away. With the cessation of flying for fun this has pretty much fallen by the wayside and I haven't had a world bird lifer for about five years. The last being a couple of ticks whilst on a work trip to Canada.
My listing emphasis is now pretty much UK focused and I have a vague sense of all the species I have seen here. Some taxa lists are better informed than others and my plant list is definitely a 'work in progress' as I comb old notebook as well as my patchy memories.
The one that I'm particularly diligent in maintaining is (unsurprisingly) my beetle list. It seems a simple enough task to make a note of every beetle that you see, but it's not necessarily quite as simple as that, for what actually constitutes a 'tick'.
When carrying out a bit of beetling there are a number of ways one can proceed. Direct searching, sweeping, beating, sieving all yield live beetles to be added to the record. But there are other methods such as pit falls or vane traps that can (depending on the methodology) give you lots of dead specimens suspended in preserving liquid. These methods are great for generating biological records especially of species that may be hard to find through other means. They help give a fuller picture of what is actually out there, but can they constitute a tick on your list?
As an example, I could go out tonight and put some baited kill traps down and catch me a Cambridgeshire polecat (I wouldn't really, I'm just making a point 😉). They are here, as I occasionally see good examples as road kill. But could I count it? It would stand as a valid biological record but I don't think I'd count it on my list. Just wouldn't seem right.
Would you count a dead beached whale that had originally been alive when first washed up? If so how decomposed would it have to get before you didn't count it? What about the skeleton? You take my point.
So is it the same for beetles. Well apparently not. There seems to be quite diverse thought over what you can and can't count. For some people, trapped dead beetles are tickable. For others, only if they are caught in a trap set by the person doing the ticking. There are also those who only count live beetles, the dead ones providing records not ticks for the list.
I must stress that there's no right or wrong to this , just differences of opinion. No one's judging...much.
I'm a live beetles only kind of guy as far as listing goes but I do occasionally use trapping methods that generate dead specimens. This has meant that up until now I've had two lists. The main one. The one of all the beetle species I've seen alive. Plus a second one. The one of beetles I've only seen dead.
Over the last couple of years the former has been increasing nicely whilst the latter has been massively reduced, until last week only one species remained on my 'only seen dead list'. Pretty good going I reckon as I'm fast approaching 700 species on the main list.
Last week, I had my annual winter fuel delivery and was left with a massive pile of logs sat on my lawn. Luckily it was warm and dry as it took me a couple of days to stack and store them.
In the sun the logs gave off a distinctive smell and within a short time I noticed beetles turning up and landing on the logs. Looking at a couple down the microscope I was rather pleased to find that I no longer had a list of beetles I have only seen dead.... 😀
The nights are drawing in quickly now and the season is certainly on the turn. The moth trap is starting to throw up those moths of a definitely Autumnal persuasion: Black Rustic, the sallows and Lunar Underwing. The year is most definitely on the wane. I usually get a bit angst-filled at this time of year thinking about the impending darkness and cold, and the retraction of life.
As someone now working full time from home I'm more aware of the need to actually leave the house and venture out beyond the confines of the garden from time to time. I'm not sure how that's going to work this winter but I'll have to come up with some solution so I don't go mad.
I also have a fridge full of samples that need identifying plus last winter showed just how productive winter beetling can be. There'll be much more of that coming up.
But last night threw up one last gasp of warm air and the temperature didn't go much below 16 degrees all night. With an eye to the future declines in natural history opportunities I put the MV and actinic traps out and the result was at least five new species for me. Two moths and three beetles.
The most unexpected species was this L-album Wainscot. Not one that I would have predicted, mainly being restricted to the southern counties of England from Cornwall eastwards to Kent, but there does appear to be an expansion into Suffolk, so it may have wandered from there.
The other moth was Nephopterix angustella another species that has been expanding its range and one that should have probably expected before now.
On the beetle front, the actinic light once again out performed the MV. An hour after dark and the trap and surrounding area was absolutely buzzing with a variety of flies and bugs. Shortly after the beetles began to turn up.
Another Depressed Flour Beetle amongst the new stuff!
Above you can see a pale anthicid (or ant-like flower beetle) that I didn't immediately recognise. This is Stricticollis tobias and is a non-native, I think originally from Asia. It turned up with a couple of its closely related mates.
Stricticollis tobias on the right and Omonadus floralis on the left
There were also lots of Eledona agricola which I'd not seen before. This is another of those weird tenebrioids that looks like it should be in another family. Some might say it looks like a tiny Trox.
By 10.30 things were dropping off and I was thinking about heading bedwards, but a last check of the trap was rewarded in a new species of ladybird, the Ozzy interloper Rhyzobius forestieri. A rather hairy thing and much bigger than the other inconspicuous ladybirds. It's red/orange abdomen was a useful ID clue.
I still have some dust (ie tiny beetles) left to ID and I think there are probably another 2 new species in there but will need to dissect and confirm. The trap ain't gonna be that good again for a while......
Best bit about this version of the blog post inspiration is that I was in the audience just a few yards away from where this was filmed. Labour were still in power.....just. Seems like a long time ago...
Last night's warm temperatures had me putting out two light traps in the garden, one MV and one actinic. The latter often delivers the better diversity of beetles especially in the first hour or two of darkness.
However, it is rubbish at holding the beetles as there are too many small escape routes for smaller stuff to leave by. The trick is to hang around the trap and regularly check the sides and surrounding area and pooter up the most interesting bits for further scrutiny.
I quickly found some Bradycellus verbasci, Trechus quadristriatus, Anotylus rugosus as well a couple of Cryptophagus that will need further inspection before I probably cry and give up.
Then two of these beetles appeared...
My first thought was that it was a Mycetophagus species, but the size of 2.5mm ruled that out. I then used the old rule that if you can't get a beetle to family then go and check the Tenebrionidae!
So this is Alphitophagus bifasciatus aka the 'two-banded fungus (or flour) beetle. It's an established introduction and there doesn't appear to be a huge number of records (33 on NBN and 2 on iRecord). It is usually found in mouldy grain and flour and occasionally in rotting vegetation and on fungi.
New for me and new for the garden. The light traps continue to deliver 😀
The lock down pond project has gradually born fruit over the course of the summer. There have been four species of dragonflies and a couple of damsels on and off over the past couple of months, resulting in several larvae that I occasionally see in the shallows. A Great-crested Newt has taken up residence and periodically appears for air if you are prepared to wait patiently. And their are several species of water beetle to be found feeding and having fun in the different depth sections. The plants are also slowly taking hold and the wet edges are starting to green up nicely.
I could, and sometimes do, spend hours lying on my front just looking at what's in there. I venture down each morning with my coffee and visit a couple of times during the day in order to stretch my legs and get away from the laptop for a bit. It's a welcome distraction during the working day.
Whilst doing this yesterday evening I spotted a small ground beetle on the gravel surrounding the pond. It was obviously a Bembidion but I potted it up for a better look as it didn't look like one of the usual two suspects.
The frontal furrows on this one come together sharply to form a 'V' which can be seen in the image. This nicely narrows down the options to 3 species which for a genus of over 50 species is a blessing!
The colour and the size (3.4mm) get us easily to Bembidion articulatum, a pretty common species in the south-east and one that I've seen before. A quick check and it appears that I have seen 21 species of Bembidion with another couple in the box to be checked by others.
Anyway, this species was new for the garden and was nice to have another addition to the pond. Makes all the effort worth it!
Today's blog title comes from the brilliant Maximo Park.
Once again this year, I let some of the grass in the garden grow after it's initial spring cut. It's not very diverse and there are still too many nutrients going in to it but it is slowly getting vetch and other flowering plants in amongst the grasses. It also attracts notably more butterflies, flies and grasshoppers than other bits of the garden during the summer months
Last weekend I strimmed it and then raked the dry grass to make a separate pile next to my various piles of detritus at the bottom of the garden. Each pile appears to have a suite of different species. Although the fruit attracts mainly wasps!
Far left is the strimmed dry grass, then grass cuttings, windfall fruit and finally some thicker, woodier stuff.
I had a quick poke through the new pile at lunchtime to see what I could find, and there was definitely activity of the beetle variety already happening. In fact in 5 minutes I easily found three new species of staph for the garden including one new one for me.
First up was this Quedius semiobscurus. It's a reasonably widespread and common species of open environments, apparently on drier soils. Although my garden soil isn't that dry.
The aedeagus is distinct too making things much easier. Although this species keys easily without it, it's good to confirm some. Last time I saw this one was from winter tussocking.
The second species was Quedius levicollis, similarly widespread but also found on damper soils. I've found this a few times before.
The third new garden species (and the one that was new for me) was the rather stunning Ocypus aeneocephalus. The image doesn't do it justice but the bronzy hairs give it a real metallic appearance making it very distinctive as it crawled through the dried grass looking for prey.
I will continue to check the piles every week to see what changes. It's a really quick and easy way to see stuff throughout the year. I just need a big pile of wood chips now.....
The post title comes from the new single by Arab Strap. Their first new material in 15 years is an absolute belter and it's been on constant repeat in my house since it's release earlier this week. Basically a song about shagging and getting old, done in Arab Strap's own inimitable way. Enjoy.
