Spent the evening unpacking books from boxes

 I've had a bit of a second hand book spree over the last couple of weeks. 

Not having had to drive 90 minutes for work every day and the resulting savings in petrol is how I have justified it to myself. But if I'm honest I rarely need an excuse to buy a book. My one weakness, well...that, and the other one.

I manage to pick up all 4 books at very reasonable prices, which made the purchases even more palatable.

The copy of Die Käfer Mitteleuropas 5: Staphylinidae II, has been a long time coming and I've really wanted this one (and number 4), for all the info and images of my fav beetle family. This volume covers Aleochs plus some other bits and pieces.

Pronotal pubescence patterns, or Pronotal Behaarungstypen.

Dick pics

What's not to love! My German is non-existent so there will be a quite a bit of google translating and head scratching but the images alone are worth it. 

The three volumes of water beetle books are part of the  Fauna Entomologica Scandinavia series. These are rather usefully in English and are full of info and the most wondrous drawings. 

There's so much in them that I have barely scratched the surface. The section on Hydroporus for example seems really useful and it's a genus that I often really struggle with. There's also a fair bit on the biology and life histories which I always like to read. They will make great additions to the UK water beetle keys and atlases. Especially useful as I have now acquired a net for water beetling and am hoping that 2021 will see me swinging it about in a few places to up my water beetle game. God knows I've been slow on the uptake!

Today's post title inspiration comes from one of the north-east's finest.