Catching up

I'm just back from a few days in north Wales with work. There were also beetles a'plenty and more on those once I sort out the specimens and the images, but suffice to say that there were a fair amount of coastal and wetland weevils seen along with some new water beetles. The weather was pretty damn good too.

With the warmer weather in Cambridge and plenty of rain, the garden had just gone mad and there was lots of nature shenanigans happening including my first garden frog in the 10 years we've lived here that had decided to pay my pond a visit.

I decided that the more clement temperatures deserved a cheeky moth trap so on went the MV and I was 'rewarded' this morning with 15 species. Yes, it's much improved on recent offerings but 15 species in late May!!. Jeez.

White-spotted Pug

Treble-bar

Common Swift 

I also hit some hawthorn blossom and beat some vegetation, resulting in two garden ticks, one of which was a new beetle. First up was a tortoise beetle. I sometimes struggle a bit with these but think but I'm pretty sure that this is Cassida vibex, new for the garden too.

The new (for me) beetle was another small staph (see last post) at only 2.9mm long. It was another omaliinid, and keyed easily to Hapalarea pygmaea. 

I now have the lengthy but enjoyable task of going through the week's beetle samples and IDing everything in there. Think there's some goodies....

Grace of God and raise your arms

The week before Christmas was incredibly wet here. Parts of the garden are still underwater. The local drainage channel overflowed and flooded fields for the first time in over a decade and slightly further afield the amount of water passing through the fen drains was incredible.

The shot above was taken on Christmas Eve, just north of Mepal next to the 100 foot drain which takes excess winter water into the Wash. It was as high as I've ever seen it and only the tops of the fences which hold the summer cattle could be seen.

It was a bit chilly and I didn't manage to persuade the kids to walk as far as I'd hoped but we did clear the cobwebs and I managed to pick up some flood debris that was being actively washed up on the remaining bits of dry land.

It's been in the shed in the extractors since then and I had a quick rummage through it this afternoon.

First up was the tortoise beetle Cassida vibex which I'd not caught up with this year so far. It looked a bit worse for wear and its colours had faded somewhat, but it was still hanging in there.

There was also a new species of staph from what is probably my favourite genus of these beetles. Platystethus They are small but are rather robust and look like they mean business. The full channel down the centre of the pronotum gives this one away.

I've only seen P. nodifrons before, coincidentally from about 2 miles further south on the same channel back in February (also from flood debris). This one was different and has less punctate elytra making it P. nitens.

I'll give the debris another couple of days to see what else comes through and then that will probably be my last beetling of the year, unless I can find some more Traveller's Joy....

Just need to write my 2020 beetling round up post. Time to hit the spreadsheets!

Appropriate inspiration comes from a band that still exists and tours but hasn't released an album in 30 years!!