The first 700

So which beetle was going to be my 700th UK species?

I pulled out a tube from the fridge that contained a couple of beetles from 2018 still needing a name. This one was obviously an Aleochara.

Luckily it was a male and so I dissected out the aedeagus.

But I'm still not sure. The specimen has a complete carina on the mesosternum and the straightness of the bottom of the aedeagus should help ID this but I'm not confident in putting a name to this just yet. I really need to compare this to known specimens. So back in the NFI box it goes...

So I ended up taking one of the unidentified staphs from the lunchtime trip earlier in the week. This was obviously a species of Quedius and with the large eyes and non-incised labrum was in the subgenus Quedius.

It easily keyed to either Q. curtipennis or fuliginosus. It required a male, which luckily I had. The shape of the median lobe identified this one as curtipennis. A really common species but not one that I had confirmed before. I seem to utter this phrase quite often.

So that's my 700th UK species. Crikey.  I only started the year at 445 species. Most of the 255 new species have been from the garden too which just goes to show how it easy it has been to add new species by trying a few different techniques. I also have a whole load of beetles without a confirmed name so the list for the year will rise as these get ID'd. 

I have now seen more beetles than any other taxa. I wonder if 1000 is possible by the end of 2021?

Got to be worth a try 😀