In the meantime, here are some big beetles that turned up at moth traps on Saturday night ..
Great Diving Beetle at Cossington Meadows - a superb big female
Lesser Stag Beetle - another one from Cossington, and very nice too.
Both of the above definitely fall into the category of non-lepidopteran insects in moth traps that I think of as 'mothing mates' - ones I like to see.
Unlike this smelly bastard ..
A burying beetle, Nicrophorus investigator from the garden trap. Looks nice, smells bad, infested with mites all over the abdomen. A 'mothing villain'.
4 comments:
Bloody hell mate they all look as though they would be better placed in some sci-fi horror movie!!!!
Great images though, super detail.
Do those Sexton Beetles eat moths? I catch a few and have found chomped moths in the morning. Uuurrgghh. Its the mites on them that repulse me....
Thanks Paul. I think you're right that they look a bit sci-fi - I'm sure the Predator and Alien films were inspired by insects.
Stewart - yep, those mites are bloody horrible! Not sure if the beetles eat moths - I haven't found anything to suggest they do but I guess they have to eat something. Most likely candidates for headless/wingless generally eaten looking moths are wasps and hornets. Unless you have sneaky Robin getting into the trap ...
I do have a robin that beats LYU's to death but these ones I'm on about were chewed with lumps out of them like a slow gnawing had taken place, not from a warm blooded predator thats for sure. Last autumn I had a mass killing that I suspect was a shrew...Great Tits and Wrens also have had a go, but I have them under control now...
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