The man of shadows thinks in clay

A day in the office today but jam packed full of meetings so no chance to take myself off at lunctime for a walk round the reserve. 

I did however, make a stop on the way home at one of my favourite bits of ancient woodland and managed 45 minutes having a walk and poking my nose in the first flowering brambles of the year. A Wasp Beetle was my first of the year plus a rather chunky Meligethes that I need to have a closer look at.  

All the flowering hawthorn was over but I remembered a decent Dogwood bush on one of the main rides through the wood. Lo and behold it was still in flower and I gave it a few thwacks over my umbrella. Mainly Anaspis and not a single longorn (except for Grammoptera) but there were a couple of these beetles. 

Quite a size difference betwwen these two and looking for all the world like soldier beetles. They are in fact Melandryidae aka the False Darkling Beetles. These are female Osphya bipunctata.  I have only seen males before and from the same wood and exactly the same bush, almost 2 years ago to the day!

Up close they really are stunning beetles and have an almost super hero/Green Lantern like mask. They also have quite a scattered distribution over southern England and are nowhere common, although Cambs seems to be a stronghold. So a good one to see again.

Blog title comes from one of my favourite band, Bauhaus. All elegant posturing and cheekbones.

The more I look, the more I see

What a month that's been (since the last post)...

Had a lovely week in Argyll, Scotland with the family at the beginning of April. Not many beetles but did see Otter, Pine Marten and White-tailed Eagle as well as some fantastic scenery, walks and even a couple of hill runs. But we picked up covid somewhere en route and we returned to Cambridge and tested positive. 

Completely knocked me for six and have spent the last 3 weeks with next to no energy and a disconcerting brain fog that has made even the simplest decisions a real effort, nevermind more complicated ones. So grateful to not have had classic covid sans vaccines. Government says it's all over, so that's okay then.

Anyway, given all that, I have not managed to get out and about for any natural history until today.

Energy levels back to normal I got up early and paid a visit to Woodwalton Fen in west Cambs and pretty much had the place to myself for a couple of hours. Lots of bird song and quite a bit of beating flowering hawthorn and other assorted foliage. 

It was probably about a week too early for it to be absolutely hooching and the air was still cool out of the direct sun. Species number was quite low but it was just lovely to be out again and finding bits and pieces. I've a few weevils and scirtiids to look through but I did find one new species quite early on. Another one of those 'can't believe I haven't seen it already' beetles. Curculio venosus. The slightly elongated scutellum being the key feature. The colour also stood out in the field.

There were plenty of the longhorn Grammoptera ruficornis on the hawthorn and I also managed to find a single Rhagium mordax.

Back home for lunch and a bit of sweeping and I had my second garden record of the staph Astenus lyonessius. A rather lovely looking beast.

So hopefully that's me back in the beetle saddle and I can get stuck into late spring. Fingers crossed.

The post title comes from Kae Tempest, who I coincidentally saw at the Cambridge Corn Exchange this week. A really stunning and emotional live performance and their new album is rather beautifully introspective and hopeful too. Definitely worth checking out.