One love is all we need

So, yesterday evening saw me driving for 45 minutes to the eastern edge of Dartmoor National Park. Arriving at my destination with only 90-odd minutes of daylight left I made my way across the open and bracken strewn hillside and began a descent into a patch of ancient riverine forest. There were lots of old oak trees, some beech, the odd pine and assorted other deciduous species. Most importantly the ground was littered with dead wood and was fairly free of any understorey, and it was clear that there is a certain amount of grazing allowed to keep it that way.

It was a very humid evening with little breeze on the valley floor and the whole place was covered in moss. I didn't see a single other person as I explored the wood and had a poke about under rocks and around trunks.

I was here to look for one beetle in particular, Carabus intricatus aka the Blue Ground Beetle. This is a species that was once thought extinct in the UK but was re-discovered in the early 90s in a couple of woods on the edge of Dartmoor. Since then it has also been found at sites on Bodmin and also south Wales. 

The beetles are nocturnal and I had read that dusk was the best time to look for them as they come out from their daytime hiding places and ascend tree trunks looking for their prey, mainly slugs. I'd found what looked like a good place for them and decided to give looking for them a go, not really expecting too much success. The hour's searching before dusk yielded only Ocypus olens, Nebria and a couple of Philonthus, with not a sniff of the Carabus. 

Just as it was getting properly dark and I was starting to worry that I might not be able to find my way back to the car, I noticed some movement on a mossy trunk, behind a thick ivy stem. Focusing the torch revealed a massive, gravid female C. intricatus on her way up the tree for an evening's hunting.

I took some pics and video and then let her get on with her night out...

What an amazing beetle, the UK's largest Carabus species. It was certainly one of the best I've seen in my short time beetling and glad I made the effort to go and take a look. 

Seeing this so early on meant that I was tucked up in bed by 22.45 and had a rather good night's sleep.

For the post title I give you some cheesy boy band pop, but given the band, entirely relevant.