Well, it has taken almost 2 months to find the first new beetle species of the year. To be fair I haven't been looking too hard and the vast majority of my spare time has been curating my reference collection and trying to get it into better shape and a bit more organised.
Carabids were first...
I still have a fair few of the early additions on big cards and hand written labels. These are gradually being replaced by better set specimens or are re-carded and labelled. I have been using the WatDon plastazote lined boxes although given the price I only have 4 of these so weevils, clicks and some assorted other families are stored in other containers.
Anyway, with the weekend weather having a bit of a sun and not needing any excuse to get away from the news I spent half an hour doing some sieving, mainly of the vast dried grass pile at the bottom of the garden. There weren't huge numbers of species but this small Philonthus stood out.
Fairly non-descript with rows of 5 punctures on the pronotum. It actually didn't key out that easily and I took a couple of wrong turns. However, as so often happens, as it was a male the aedeagus was fairly distinctive and took me straight to P. debilis.
Looking at Lott and Anderson I was rather pleased to see the following
This week saw a big event in my life. A huge change that will have many personal ramifications.
Can you guess?
Yep, the first day back at the office for almost two years. Not many people there but still a few friendly faces to have a conversation and catch up with. Despite generally preferring my own company it was rather nice to be back there and whilst I don't think going back full time will happen, I will definitely try and be there a couple of days a week.
Apart from interacting with fellow humans, the Lodge also has the attractions of a lunchtime spent in the office grounds and the wider nature reserve. A rather nicer walk and experience that the flat arable fields around my village.
I spent a quick 15 minutes looking through and sieving a couple of wood chip piles that have been created from some of the tree work that has been happened whilst I've been away.
The piles were a bit dry and past their best but I did find a few of the usual suspects in there.
Calathus cinctus
Syntomus foveatus
Lithocharis nigriceps
Tachyporus hypnorum
Quedius picipes
Philonthus cognatus
Habrocerus capillaricornis
plus a couple of different aleoch species.
I have another day there this coming week so will see if I can get further than 100 metres from my desk. Would be nice to have a poke around under bark, in dead wood and any fungi that might still be out there.
Spring starts here....
The post title comes from Sheep on Drugs, an industrial techno band that I was rather fond of in the early 90s. I still have all their early output on vinyl which along with YouTube seems to be the only place I can still listen to them as streaming services only appear to carry remixes. Enjoy.
It's coming up on mid Feb and there's light in the sky now at 5pm. It's a much needed reminder that the days are lengthening and that Spring is coming. This winter has felt longer than usual and I must admit to just holing up in the house as my way of getting through it, plus I did have a lot of beetle samples to get through. But I think it's probably time to venture out now and remind myself of what's out there!
Back in the depths of time (last May) I visited the RSPB reserve at Cors Ddyga on Anglesey in north-west Wales. I was there to help with a series of invertebrate surveys. The area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and one of just three in Wales designated for the richness of its aquatic invertebrates. My water beetling antics have been few and far between so I was keen to see some new beetles and learn a few new techniques.
The site is mainly flooded grassland sectioned off into fields for cattle grazing. Many field edges have ditches in a variety of stages of floral succession. On top of this some are heavily shaded whilst others remain in full sunlight. This gives an extraordinary variety of habitats for beetles and the trick with the management is to maintain the diversity.
We spent a lot of time, nets in hand disturbing the watery margins and also submerging vegetation in shallow puddles and seeing what floated to the surface.
So this is what it looks like...
The main thing I think I learned beetle-wise from a few days doing this (and the subsequent microscope time) is that Hydroporus water beetles are little ba&*ards. They need to be dry to best make use of the characters in the keys and having a few species lined up together makes some of the more subtle characteristics easier to work out. As with most beetles, males help as the aedeagus can be distinctive (but not always, as I found out).
My images of water beetles are a bit rubbish, so here are some other species that I found which were new for me.
Hydrothassa marginella
Three Helophorus species aequalis, obscurus (which was new)and brevipaplis.
The rather wonderful looking Hydrochus brevis found by submerging short grass at the edges of flooded pasture, and then waiting for it to float to the surface. The second of this genus I have now seen.
Finally caught up with Agonum marginatum.
The brilliantly named Horsetail Sloth Weevil Bagous lutulentus found on water horsetail.
Rhinoncus perpendicularis
Pelenomus comari found by submerging Marsh Cinquefoil
Think this may be my new favourite carabid. A much more subtle beauty than its close relatives.
The lovely Blethisa multipunctata aka the Many-dimpled.
So I promise that's it from 2021 and all future posts will be from the here and now (or thereabouts). Just need to get out and find some beetles!
The post title comes from the Thom Yorke's first foray into film scores and is well worth a listen.
