I picked up these two beetles off an Autumn bracket fungus on a lunch time walk. Both are pretty small at around 2mm each.
The first is pretty distinctive when seen well. A very thin, pointy neck and bulging elytra point to Autalia, one of the easier of the nightmarish aleocharine staphs. There are four species in this genus and they invariably turn up in dung, decaying material and on fungi.
Of the four species only 2 are multi-colored like this - impressa and longicornis. The differences are subtle and best gauged against reference material. So this will have to go down as Autalia sp. until I can compare with others.
There's a useful overview of the genus here.
This size of beetle is also at the limits of my dissection skills, which may go someway in explaining why I failed to find any genitalia when I took a look inside!
The other beetle from the same fungus is another staph and is equally small. I think this is in the genus Proteinus and if so is possibly ovalis but I'm not sure. So for now will have to join the others in my box of beetles labelled as 'No f***ing idea."
