Carding beetles

It's one of those jobs that any coleopterist has to get to grips with and one that gets easier the more one does it..... allegedly.

I have to admit that I secretly enjoy it but I still find beetles under 5mm a real chore and struggle to get all their bits in perfect symmetry.

A couple of things prompted this post. I've recently been finishing last year's backlog of beetles from the fridge in readiness for the new season that is now upon us and I will say that I'm (sadly) rather excited about a few imminent days in the field pootling (or should that be pootering) about on my hands and knees.

I was taking some pics down the microscope of a beetle that I was having trouble with. In retrospect it was an easy beetle, but I just couldn't make out a couple of key details to clinch the ID. In this case an elytral pore near the scutellum. The beetle in question was a Calodromius spilotus, collected from some recently pollarded willow in my garden.

I also found a couple of staphs on a recent trip to Cornwall which I have duly carded and put to one side while I await the more expensive of the 2 of Derek Lott's staph books.

The other thing that has prompted this post is a video that was recently posted on the UK Beetles Facebook page by Mark Telfer all about his carding technique. Worth a watch. Happy carding!

Spring arrivals

It's been a slow start to natural history in 2016. Am still working my way through the remaining specimens from last year and planning some excursions. We're off to Cornwall next week and while I'm not expecting much, there's always the chance of some guerilla rock pooling, plus I'll be taking the moth trap on the off chance that there's a mild night or two.

Mothing so far this year has drawn a blank in the garden, but the security lights at work have served up Pale Brindled Beauty a couple of times. We finally got round to putting out the work MV trap on Thursday night and it turned up a reasonable selection for the first week in February.

A reasonable selection of spring moths

Pale Brindled Beauty               7

Spring Usher                               2

Common Quaker                      2

March Moth                               3

Chestnut                                      5

Agonopterix sp. (tbc)              1

Light Brown Apple Moth       1

Tortricodes alternella              1

Pale Brindled Beauty males. Form monacharia and a more standard version

Spring Usher

 


March Moth

Good bye 2015

Well it's almost the end of the year and my festive itinerary means that I probably won't get another chance to post before 2016 is upon us.

Looking back at this time last year I made all sort of natural history goals and predictions, almost none of which came true. So, I think for 2016 my plan is to just enjoy what comes along and to keep trying to see new bits of the natural history of these isles. But I am going to keep concentrating on beetles as discovering these over the last couple of years has been a revelation and has added so much to my enjoyment of natural history. My new job means that I'm based in a nature reserve which should mean some lunchtime forays over the coming months and may even result in some visits to other reserves over the year.

The one goal from last year that has sort of come true is that this blog is still going. In all honestly I was pretty sure it would fizzle out pretty quickly and although it is usually light on text and heavy on crap pictures, this posts represents the 52 post of the year. That's one a week!!

The blog has had more than 3000 views this year from a bizarrely varied list of countries. Not many comments but you can't have everything and that's probably just a result of my unengaging posts!

Anyway, if anyone reads this I hope you have a great Christmas and New Year and that 2016 brings you everything you hope for.

(and here's a nicely marked Mottled Umber that was hanging out at work the other day)

Merry men

Had a fun day out at Sherwood Forest yesterday. visiting the National Nature Reserve, and getting to hear all about the plans for the future of this rather fascinating and special place.

We visited the Major Oak and saw a good number of other ancient oaks. Apparently the highest density in western Europe.

There was so much dead wood about that I'm guessing invertebrate sampling must throw up some pretty cool stuff. Will have to make a return visit at some point and take a better look.

There were still a few fungi on show including a few Scleroderma citrinum, Common Earthball. A fungus that even I can identify (I hope).

My guilty internet secret

It's that time of year when we all spend time on the internet looking for gifts for our nearest and dearest for the forthcoming festive season. We're all at it.

Except, I have a guilty confession....

I always get tempted away from the job in hand by certain websites...

You know the kind.

One such late night online session last week, resulted in a parcel landing with a thud on my doorstep this morning.

I'm not referring to anything untoward here but it's the sites of the purveyors of natural history books that I'm drawn towards.

On opening the package I found the rather beautiful Suomen Luteet [Finnish Bugs]. It is a comprehensive guide to 521 species of Heteroptera known from Finland but has a good crossover with UK species. Obviously, the text is all in Finnish but the extensive photo spreads are great and will make a great first point of reference when dealing with specimens.

A wee bit of google translate does the job for most of the language and I'll go through and mark which the UK species are. Now that winter is properly here (ground frosts and everything) it's also a nice reminder of the year to come.

Ages ago I had an app that used the iPhone camera to auto translate text in real time. Can't for the life of me find or remember what it was now.

Bugger! If anyone can recommend one please do let me know.

 

Continental beauties

I've been spending some much needed time categorising and sorting out a whole load of images. I have 10s of 1000s of images on my computer and several hard drives. It's a slow process but should hopefully be worthwhile in the long run.

I occasionally find stuff that I'd completely forgotten about and that was the case with a folder from June 2008 entitled Beetles. The pictures were all taken of beetles that had turned up in my moth trap over a 2 week period whilst on holiday in the Cevennes region of France.

I remember being pretty blown away by them at the time but given my recent shift in interest toward coleoptera it was rather nice to be reminded of them.

Calasoma sychophanta

European Rhinoceros Beetle

Saperda scalaris

Female Stag Beetle

Bug-on-wall

One of the ladies I work with popped over to my desk last week and asked if I'd seen the weird bug on the wall outside our office.

I popped my head out to see a new bug for me, but one that was immediately recognisable, Western Conifer Seed bug Leptoglossus occidentalis.

Not an unexpected species but this alien invasive was rather smarter than I thought it would be.
Native to the USA and introduced into Europe in 1999, it has since spread rapidly