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Posts from the ‘Beetles’ Category

Feb 5

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Squealing in the reeds

water_rail

Water Rail, Rallus aquaticus © Alexis Lours

Although as a child birds were my first true love and I spent many many hours drawing them obsessively. As an adult l’m only an ‘every now and again’ sort of birder. Insects, particularly beetles, have well and truly taken over. Yet recently my interest has been somewhat rekindled courtesy of the local RSPB branch and their Conservation and Wildlife Action Group (CWAG). Every Wednesday morning I help them out with their weekly bird surveys on behalf of the Box Moor Trust.

Anyway… I mentioned to fellow CWAGer Axel Kirby that my bogey bird* was the Water Rail Rallus aquaticus. I’ve heard its distinctive pig-like squeal many times but an actual sighting had so far proved elusive. ‘You should have been here five minutes ago’ or ‘we were knee deep in them yesterday’ a familiar refrain from somewhat smug birders. Axel then rubbed the salt in by showing me a photo on his camera of not one, but two, he’d photographed just a few days earlier at a Local Nature Reserve. Armed with his local knowledge the following Friday we arranged a visit to this charming four acre reserve managed by the Watercress Wildlife Association. Literally five minutes after our arrival I saw my very first Water Rail.

Smaller and slimmer than the Moorhen, the Water Rail is a highly secretive inhabitant of freshwater wetlands. It its easier to see in Winter when they become more numerous and widespread.

*A bird that although fairly widespread has required more time and effort than anticipated to see. Read more

Mar 1

One for St David

pyrridium sanguineum

Pyrrhidium sanguineum © Gilles San Martin

One of the pleasures of being the Wiltshire county recorder for Coleoptera is receiving emails from fellow recorders, particularly when they’ve found something interesting on their patch. For example, last May Sue Walker and Tony Goddard found a specimen of the strikingly handsome Welsh Oak Longhorn Beetle Pyrrhidium sanguineum crawling up the outside wall of their house in Bentley Wood, South Wiltshire. After verification this was determined as a new first for the county. It’s more usually encountered in central and South Wales and the bordering counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Gloucestershire. This exciting find was later written up as a note in The Coleopterist.
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Mar 7

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Pure gold

the goldsmith, carabus auratus

The Goldsmith, Carabus auratus © G.Bohne

I often meet up with Paul Darby ex Wiltshire Wildlife Trust for a pint and a bag of twiglets and inevitably our conversation turns to wildlife. Recently he brought along a couple of his old insect books. In one, entitled Beetles of Britain and Europe – a rather slim Longman Nature Guide dating from 1986, I was intrigued by both the changes in taxonomy and by some of the common names. Many like the common name for the metallic green-gold ground beetle The Goldsmith Carabus auratus, and ‘Devil’s Coach-horse’ for the large black rove beetle Ocypus olens I’m familiar with but others like Wool Beetle, Bladder Beetle and and Bacon Beetle were new to me. Read more

Oct 22

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Rutpela maculata

Illustration of Rutpela maculata

Illustration of Rutpela maculata

I was recently commissioned to design a nature board for a meadow in Hampshire. I’d hoped to get Richard Lewington to do the illustrations but unfortunately he was too busy working on other projects. I tried another illustrator but sadly that didn’t work out so ended up doing them myself. There were twelve in total including a couple of beetles. The Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle Rutpela maculata is pictured above. Previously I’ve always used designer’s gouache but after trying a variety of styles and techniques I finally opted for Faber Castell Polychromous coloured pencils and Pigma Micron archival ink on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper. Surprising really as I’ve never used coloured pencils before.

Jun 22

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Invasion

The blue alder leaf beetle, Agelastica alni

Agelastica alni, male

Until 2004, the Blue Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni was thought to be very rare in Britain, possibly extinct although there were some historical records from southern England. Then in 2004 it suddenly appeared again in northern England in the Manchester area – Lancashire and Cheshire in 2006 and Yorkshire in 2014. It was found in Wales in 2013 and in southern England in Hampshire in 2014, mainly around Southampton*. I found it myself for the first time in Hampshire in 2015 near Eastleigh.

I searched for it in Wiltshire in 2016 but couldn’t find it (not that I looked that hard) but of course it was only a matter of time before it arrived. So it came as no surprise when I received an email from David Lawman containing a couple of specimens he photographed in Bentley Wood in south Wiltshire on 11th June. Coincidentally the same day I received an email from Anthony Coles containing a photo of a couple of carded vouchers he found on 2nd and 3rd June in Foxham near Chippenham, north Wiltshire. Although in both instances the photos looked pretty convincing, they were a little blurry (and as I’ve only recently taken on the role of county recorder and I’m not an expert on chrysomelids) I passed them onto David Hubble for a second opinion. Dave runs the Bruchidae & Chrysomelidae Recording Scheme and is the author of the Keys to the adults of seed and leaf beetles of Britain and Ireland and the about to be published Leaf Beetles. Dave confirmed by return, as we all suspected, that they were indeed Agelastica alni.

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Mar 17

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Buried, but not forgotten

Sexton beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides

Nicrophorus vespilloides

While sorting through some old photos from 2008 I discovered this photo of a Sexton or The Common Burying Beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. These are useful beetles that bury the carcasses of small vertebrates such as birds and rodents as a food source for their larvae. These beetles sometimes called carrion beetles belong to the family Silphidae.

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Mar 15

Billy witches

June bug, Melolontha melolontha, male

Melolontha melolontha – Male

I’ve not posted for a while. Working freelance has kept me busy and much of my spare time has been spent either keying out specimens, uploading insect and wildlife records, writing reports or more enjoyably attending various insect workshops. At the last one, on Caribidae (Ground beetles) I got chatting to a young lady at the microscope opposite me. Ashleigh works in Edinburgh as a curatorial assistant (Entomology) for National Museums, Scotland and I mentioned that sometimes flying beetles get attracted to my moth-trap. Not quite so welcome are the big, up to 30mm long ‘Spang Beetles’ or ‘Billy Witches’ more commonly known as the Common Cockchafer Melolontha melolontha.

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Apr 7

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Black Oil Beetle

Black Oil beetle, Meloe proscarabaeus, male

Meloe proscarabaeus – male

The Black oil beetle Meloe proscarabaeus is a beetle that I’ve looked for on Salisbury Plain before but not found until just recently. It gets its name from its habit of secreting droplets of ‘oil’ from its knee joints when roughly handled. This contains the odourless and colourless toxic chemical compound cantharidin which can cause blistering.

There used to be eight species in the UK but sadly three of them are now considered extinct. In fact two of our remaining five, the short-necked oil beetle Meloe brevicollis, last recorded in 1948, and the Mediterranean oil beetle Meloe mediterraneus, last recorded in 1906, were also thought to be extinct but were recently rediscovered by amateur entomologists in Devon.

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Jul 10

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The lesser of two weevils

Hazel-leaf roller weevil, apoderus coryli,

Apoderus coryli

Whilst looking for Adonis Blue butterflies on West Yatton Down I discovered this little chap standing on a Hazel leaf. Further investigation revealed it to be a Hazel-leaf roller weevil Apoderus coryli.

It’s a beetle belonging to the family Attelabidae subfamily Attelaninae which are sometimes called giraffe weevils for rather obvious reasons. These primitive insects have a bell-shaped thorax (pronotum) and rather protruding eyes.

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May 14

Blood spewers

Bloody-nosed beetles, Timarcha tenebricosa

Timarcha tenebricosa, male and female

The bloody-nosed beetle Timarcha tenebricosa or blood spewer as it is sometimes known from its defensive habit of exuding a bright red-orange fluid from its mouth. This fluid is foul-tasting to predators, seriously irritating the mouth of birds and mammals. Subsequently it can sometimes be seen wandering around in daylight largely unmolested. Read more

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