If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air

All the way back in May I paid a visit to the dunes at Aberffraw on Anglesey in north-west Wales with fellow beetler, Andy. 

The sun was mainly out and we spent a few hours pootling around the tussocks and dune slacks. It was one of the days where beetles were on the move and many had become trapped in the ever moving pockets of sand on the steeper, vegetation-free parts of the dunes.

Weevils were one of the most represented groups with several of the usual suspects and a few new species for me. First up was a species that I've wanted to see for a while, the slightly bizarre-looking Orobitis cyanea. Basically a tiny violet-black pea with long legs. Associated with violets in grassland and open areas, a few of these were stuck on the escalators of cascading sand.

Sitona always make me doubt myself but I think this one is Sitona lineellus. At least that's where Mark Gurney's brilliant weevil guides take me.

There were also lots of the large Sitona-like Charagmus griseus. These too had got trapped and instead of flying off just seemed to walk in a never-ending attempt to scale the ever flowing sandy dune sides.

This individual really stood out in the field and I when I pootered it I was convinced it was something else but it is just another Charagmus griseus but this time all the scales have rubbed off.

With the publication earlier this year of the new Atlas and Key to histerids, I no longer dread sitting down to key them out. It really has been a game changer for me with this group. This Hypocaccus rugiceps was a new species for me and is pretty much restricted to coastal Wales and north-west England. The new book gives it the name of The West Coast Dune-walker. 

(some of the pics are actually okay for once 😉)

I also found two new (for me) species of ladybird, both in the genus Scymnus. The first one was the easy to ID S. haemorrhoidalis. At only 2mm it really is tiny but the pattern of red on the head and pronotum, plus the red tips to the elytra make it stand out from the other species I found.....

... so this keyed using Duff to Scymnus schmidti partly due to the all black elytra. However, Mark Telfer reminded me of a recent discussion on the British Beetles email group where it was pointed out that in the UK we should stop detting schmidti (all black elytra) and frontalis (red spot on each elytron) on colour and dissect them all as there are forms on the near continent that don't conform to this rule and may occur here (either already or at some point in the future). That means that for all confirmed records a dissected beetle is needed. 

I removed the aedeagus and then put it under the compound microscope in a drop of glycerine to examine the tip.

Whilst the differences aren't huge my beetle does indeed appear to be S. schmidti and as it's the first time I've found this species pair I won't have to go back and either dissect old specimens or remove records. Bonus.

Which brings me neatly to this post's title inspiration from Groove Armada, not normally my cup of tea but it does give the air of relaxing at the beach, suction sampler in hand.....