The opposite of collateral damage

What is the opposite of collateral damage?

What ever it is, I had some yesterday on an early morning walk that found me along a Cambridgeshire river looking for Musk Beetles. Despite failing in this simple task once again I did manage to find two new species of beetle one in each of what are fast becoming favourite families.

First up while sweeping grass and knapweeds adjoining the river bank were lots of this massive weevil. My first thought was a Barynotus species but it looked wrong. In fact it looked like a massive Sitona species whilst moving around the sweep net.

It is in fact Tanymecus palliatus and is quite a scarce weevil in the UK but can be common in the places it occurs, as I found it to be here. One of its distinguishing features is the long cheek hair projecting forward as seen in the image below.

One of the families I used to hate were elaterids. But with the new key in Duff volume 3 and just generally being more confident in what I'm doing they have really grown on me. So any day with a new species is a happy one.

This individual was swept from the same area as the weevils but was the only one found, alongside a couple of Agriotes sputator.

It keyed relatively straightforwardly to Aplotarsus incanus a species that is relatively frequently encountered across Wales and central England. Just not by me it seems. 

Now I just need to find a Musk Beetle....