It was dark when I started work this morning and it was dark again by the time I finished. As a result, my natural history adventures were once again entirely restricted to the laundry shed. I do sometimes feel like an awkward interloper into the everyday world of normal people, entering from darkness, loitering in poorly lit places, hoping to sneak in and out unseen before returning into darkness once more. Tonight I was lucky. I snuck in, spotted a small beetle on the ceiling, potted it and slunk back out again unseen. Ninja skills to the fore...
Unfortunately those ninja skills did not lend themselves well to my photographic abilities.
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| Note there is something very 'wrong' with the back legs... |
The hugely enlarged hind femora led me to believe that this was one of the so-called flea beetles. Because they can, and do, leap very well indeed at the slightest provocation. Happily, this particular specimen leaped straight into the bottom of my tube. Happily for me, that is, less so for the beetle.
A few years ago I treated myself to the Keys to the adults of seed and leaf beetles of Britain and Ireland which, to all intents and purposes, may as well be called Keys to the aedegi of the seed and leaf beetles of Britain and Ireland. It's not one of my favourite keys, I have to say. But this is 2020 and I have a PSL Vision to adhere to. So I boldly bit the bullet and dived straight in.
It was easy! I figured it to species within a very short space of time (always a worry) so tried it again in Beetles of Britain and Ireland Vol 4 (Duff 2016) and surprisingly was quickly dropped out at the same species. A quick look in The Beetles of Raasay (Moore 2012) confirmed that my species was indeed commonplace up here.
So what was it? After checking the shape of the front edge of the eye, then checking for signs of an x-shaped furrow across the brow (see below)
and after checking the size of the punctures across the pronotum, the hairiness (or rather lack of) the base of the epipleuron and the weird insertion of the tarsal segments into the tibia I was led to just a couple of species. It was all down to the front corners of the pronotum...
The angle and shape of these 'shoulder pads', along with several other features mentioned in the keys, dropped me neatly out at Psylliodes napi, a widespread beetle on various members of the Brassicaceae. A seemingly unambiguous identification and a lifer for me. Happy days, pity about the image quality.
A few years ago I treated myself to the Keys to the adults of seed and leaf beetles of Britain and Ireland which, to all intents and purposes, may as well be called Keys to the aedegi of the seed and leaf beetles of Britain and Ireland. It's not one of my favourite keys, I have to say. But this is 2020 and I have a PSL Vision to adhere to. So I boldly bit the bullet and dived straight in.
It was easy! I figured it to species within a very short space of time (always a worry) so tried it again in Beetles of Britain and Ireland Vol 4 (Duff 2016) and surprisingly was quickly dropped out at the same species. A quick look in The Beetles of Raasay (Moore 2012) confirmed that my species was indeed commonplace up here.
So what was it? After checking the shape of the front edge of the eye, then checking for signs of an x-shaped furrow across the brow (see below)
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| Front edge of the eyes not deeply excised, no deep frontal x-shape across the brows |
and after checking the size of the punctures across the pronotum, the hairiness (or rather lack of) the base of the epipleuron and the weird insertion of the tarsal segments into the tibia I was led to just a couple of species. It was all down to the front corners of the pronotum...
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| Check out those raised 'shoulder pads' |
Will be interesting to see how quickly new beetles appear ... I'm on 6 so far with another 6 awaiting dissection....
ReplyDeleteSix lifers in the first week of the year is excellent going. I'm slacking on just two, though that is 50% of the beetles I've seen this year.
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