The only thing you gave me was the boredom I suffocated in

So I chanced a supermarket run early doors this morning and as I was driving, listening to the radio, the Manic Street Preachers' Motown Junk came on. I loved this song when it came out, I was 17 and I saw them play it in a small sweaty pub in Hull about a month later. I seem to remember it being a rather edgy gig.

It also furnishes this post with a title. I am doing my best not to get too bored whilst stuck at home. So late this afternoon had another poke around the garden.

First up was a quick sweep of a patch of Green Alkanet. It turned up this hairy fella. A quick glance at my recently acquired caterpillar guide and I'm reasonably sure it's a Ruby Tiger. Good to see as they appeared to have a poor year last season if my trapping data is anything to go by.

Next was a hoverfly sticking lowdown in the vegetation. There was a gap between the eyes making this a female and I think the grey spots on the abdomen make this Platycheirus albimanus.

Then there was this bug that I was pretty confident that it was a Drymus species but not beyond that. Apparently it's D. sylvaticus (thanks, Skev).

I also found a few staphs in some ejected rabbit nest material. These will need a closer look and dissection before I throw in the towel in and give up.

And here's the song that transported me back 30 years.

An unsuccessful look for a crucifix

The latest issue of the Coleopterist has a paper about some recent records of the rather stunning ground beetle Panagaeus cruxmajor (otherwise known as the crucifix ground beetle) from along a stretch of the river Trent on the Lincs/Notts border. Lincolnshire coleopterist, Charlie Barnes was kind enough to suggest a couple of places to look and so last weekend I made a stop whilst driving from East Yorkshire back home to Cambridge.

I stopped at High Marnham and walked a little way north and then south for about an hour, checking under flood debris and bits of rubbish and looking in rotting logs and other bits of wood.

After about 90 mins the light was starting to go and I hadn't managed to find my quarry, so I made my way back to the car and carried on down the always lovely A1.

The trip wasn't a waste, however. I did manage to find two species of hemipteran and one beetle that were new for me.

Drymus sylvaticus

Liocoris tripustulatus

Oxypselaphus obscurus

I also found Agonum fuliginosum, Anchomenus dorsalis, Agonum thoreyi and Platynus assimilis. 

Agonum-tastic!!

I will have to return again for another look next winter or even better find my own along the river Cam.