Brash Americans

I managed only a quick 20 minute break break at lunchtime today and went and peered at some small ponds. I noticed this bug sat on some of the aquatic vegetation. Not exactly where I had expected to see it but its food plant was nearby, a species I've been meaning bump into for a while Graphocephala fennahi or the Rhododendron Leafhopper.

This species is native to the USA, and was introduced to Europe in the early 20th century. Both adults and larvae feed on Rhododendron sap, and it is one of the few insects to use this invasive plant as a foodplant. It's rather pretty too.

A tropical interloper

Last night I notice a small beetle crawling on the inside pane of the kitchen window. I potted it and had a quick look under the microscope. It was about 3mm long and had a couple of abdominal segments exposed beyond the elytra.

It was as I had first assumed one of the Nitidulidae or pollen beetles and it keyed easily to Carpophilus marginellus, another new beetle for me. It's not one I can find much info on and it's not covered in the RES Pollen Beetles book by Kirk-Spriggs. All I can find is that it was introduced from tropical areas to Europe and is pretty reliant on humans and their stored products.

So I'd better go and check the biscuit tin!

It's time to get some bembid heaven

So, this day in the field seems like another life time ago now but I've finally got round to ID'ing some of the trickier beetles I found on this day back in June. Whilst working up at Abernethy Forest in the Cairngorms I managed a few hours exploring the river shingle on the River Feshie.

I was really lucky as the weather was dry and warm and was a vast improvement on the previous days' rather patchy weather. This wasn't a habitat that I'd ever looked at before and despite all the interesting looking plants I decided to stick to beetles. Specifically I wanted to see if I could find a selection of Bembidion species that I wouldn't necessarily have encountered elsewhere.

There was a real mix of substrate types to search through, from really fine sandy sediment through to large rocks intermixed with gravel. There was also fast running river water and smaller areas of standing water left over from spring meltwater.

There were also good numbers of Dingy Skippers on the wing seemingly flying up every few metres as I walked the banks- cue crap photo alert!

One of the beetles I had hoped to bump in to quickly gave itself up, 5-spot ladybird Coccinella 5-punctata. This species is a river shingle specialist and I found them in small patches of vegetation around the edges of the river. Easy to see as they moved along the ground.

5-spot ladybird Coccinella 5-punctata

There were also a few of these Amara fulva under stones in some of the areas with smaller gravel.

Click beetles came in the rather robust form of Hypnoides riparius. 6.5mm but built like a brick shit house.

As for Bembids well the most noticeable was Bracteon litorale. There were loads of these beetles scurrying around on sand patches when the sun came out. They're a reasonable size at around 6mm and an easy one to ID with the four 'mirrors' on the elytra.

Bracteon litorale

 The next most commonly encountered one was Bembidion tibiale.

Female Bembidion tibiale

 This proved a bit more difficult to key out as I was questioning how straight the base of the pronotum was.  Finding a male made the identification much easier and the aedagus fits tibiale nicely.

Aedagus of Bembidion tibale to confirm

There were also lots of these guys and girls which will probably turn out to all be Bembidion tetracolum but I reckon that some might actually be B. bualei. The characteristics are subtle enough that I'm going to need to compare with some known specimens to make doubly sure.

Whatever they turn out to be it was an amazing few hours in a stunning part of the world and I'd really like to get back for a further look.

And here's the track that inspired the title....

The green green grass of home

This year I decided to leave the grass in half of the garden to grow after its initial spring mow. There were a smattering of flowering plants such as Cowslip and Field Scabious which seemed to do well but mostly it's just been loads of long grass.

There have definitely been more butterflies and other insects around, and the plan is to try and add a few more plant species into the mix by some adding some seeds.

Anyway, over the past couple of weeks, I've been strimming the long grass, raking it up and adding it to the compost heap.

I've left piles of grass to dry for several days and have then been sieving some of these piles to look for beetles.

 

This bug was extremely striking as it moved around the tray at a fast rate of knots. A quick scan of images on the amazing British Bugs site nailed it as Graptopeltus lynceus. It's apparently associated with dry sparsely-vegetated habitats such as dunes, breckland, and old sand or chalk pits. It feeds mainly on viper's bugloss. My garden doesn't really fit this description. It's really more of wet habitat sat on heavy clay soil on the edge of the fens. However, it is dry at the moment and there are a couple of Viper's Bugloss plants in one bit. So maybe that's all it needs.  

At 2mm, Cartodere bifasciata is a small beetle found in decaying plant material. The elytra are yellowy-brown and are marked with a darker patterning of large dot like blotches. The elytra are also studded with rows of dimples. It's fairly distinctive when seen.

There are also plenty of staphs in the dried grass. Here's a trio of them. In the middle is Tachyporus hypnorum, one of the commonest British Beetles. On the right is Drusilla canaliculata and on the left Sepedophilus nigripennis.

Small and brown

I picked up a couple of other beetles yesterday whilst on the walk, both were small.......and brown.

The first was one of a mating pair of flea beetles and the wee fella's wee fella was literally hanging right out. On closer inspection the aedagus took up a considerable part of the abdominal cavity and really is quite something to behold. 

The beetle in question is Neocrepidodera transversa and at 4mm was fairly easy to key out. But as it was a flea beetle I knew immediately which family it was in and where to begin my search. The other beetle wasn't quite so easy.

I went all round the houses with this 2.8mm beetle. I eventually asked for a pointer on family and was told to look at the Coccinellidae. It's only a blooming ladybird. From there, it's easy. Coccidula rufa, the Red Marsh Ladybird and one of the inconspicuous ladybird species. This one likes wet habitats where it feeds on aphids. It's very widely distributed so perhaps surprising that I'd not come across one before.

The Imperial Guard Beetle

After 3 full days at Bird Fair, I've had a couple of days off to recover. Yesterday was mostly spend just sitting around not doing much but today the kids and I got out for a few hours to stretch our legs. 

An explore down the banks of the River Cam plus a trip to Wicken kept all fully entertained. I even managed a beetle tick. Now in birder's parlance this was a 'tart's tick', i.e. one that everyone should have seen. 

The reasonably common Anthocomus rufus.

I first saw a single individual on some Purple Loosestrife before then finding them pretty much everywhere!

They are a beautiful beetle when seen up close, but at about 4.5mm you need to get them under a hand lens or microscope to appreciate them properly.

But for some reason all I can think of when I see them is an Imperial Guard from Star Wars

Weird, the tricks the brain plays!

Who's your favourite beetle?

John, Paul, George or the funny one on drums?

Well after a couple of weeks in the south of France I think I can say so far it's Rosalia alpina, the Alpine longhorn beetle.

It all began when I had suggested to my 8 year old at the beginning of this particular walk that the beech and turkey oak forest that we were in might hold a particularly cool beetle. An hour late and I heard the words, "Dad what's that longhorn beetle?" as something flew in and crash landed on my arm.

What a beetle. 

It crawled around me for a bit before I put it on the ground (see crap video below)

I managed a few other longhorns during the trip too. Most just ended up flying into me whilst I was relaxing with a glass of wine. Wish beetling was that easy in the UK!

The weird Spondylis buprestoides which I initially couldn't even get to family

A road casualty Cerambyx species. Not sure which

Ergates faber

Chlorophorus glabromaculatus 

A female Monochamus galloprovincialis