Field of reeds

I've not had much time for beetling over the last week but did manage to squeeze in a quick trip to the village pond at lunchtime today and grabbed a few more bits of dead standing typha stems to have a poke about in.

I can't quite work out which ones are best and what the beetles actually like. Some stems have quite a few beetles in whilst other seemingly identical nearby ones are entirely devoid of beetle life. Weird.

First up was a new carabid for me the rather lovely Demetrias imperialis.

They are found throughout the south east but the books have them down as scarce. But finding them in the winter in dead reeds appears to be a classic technique.

There were also a number of aleochs of two different species in there, possibly feeding on the large number of thrips that were in several stems. Not quite sure of this one yet. Confusing things, aleochs.

I also got confused (again) looking at the Telmatophilus that were there in some numbers. 

They fall into 3 size categories

The larger ones (on the left) appear to be T. brevicollis and the smallest (right hand beetle) are T. typhae, it's the one in the middle (size wise and in photo above) that I am scratching my head at.

They have the contrasting femora and tibia and a hint of the pronotum being slightly curved before the hind angles. That would make them T. schonherrii which is currently subsumed into T. typhae but is separated in older literature and I am told is probably a valid taxon.

One to definitely ponder and get more experience beetlers to look at my specimens. However, if you told me a year ago that I would be sitting down of an evening with a series of cryptophagids to compare features I probably would have thought you mad.

The post title inspiration is the title track from These New Puritan's third album and features one of the deepest voices I've encountered. Magical stuff. 

A couple of new little 'uns

A recent post by fellow naturalist, David on Twitter had my looking at the edges of one of our village ponds this afternoon for a particularly nice looking staph Hygronoma dimidiata. 

I was targeting old stands of reed mace (Typha sp.), as it had been mentioned that this particular beetle might be found within. The amount I could actually reach without either doing myself a mischief or getting rather wet was limited. I will return fully wellied up in the near future for another pop.

I brought a few stems back home with me and then proceeded to create a veritable maelstrom of fluffy Typha seeds as I opened up the heads and shaft.

I failed to locate that particular staph but I did pick up two new beetle species. Both widespread and probably just missed previously having never tried this particular technique before.

Telmatophilus typhae

Stenus pallitarsis

Apart from that, it has been a weekend of gardening. Cutting back the huge amounts of bramble and doing a bit of pond maintenance. I almost mowed the lawn but the ground was still a bit too damp. The sun was warm and it felt like spring. Lovely.