Dor plus

Here's a few bits I've seen since coming home from Devon. First up, a visit to Bradgate Park for a family walk and picnic on Monday 21st produced some good opportunities, especially with all the deer dung lying about. One particular dollop was being addressed by a large iridescent beetle that proved under the microscope to be the Dor Beetle Geotrupes stercorarius (separable from Geotrupes spiniger from the outer side of the hind tibia and the shape of the mandibles).

Dor Beetle - no, I didn't bring home the deer dung for photography!

On Sunday 27th I had a couple of hours out in the afternoon around parts of my square which produced a new sawfly (Aglaostigma fulvipes, no photo) but otherwise a few interesting bits that I'd seen before including ...

Cardinal Beetle - seems a little early

Pammene rhediella - definitely seems too early for it to be out and worn

 

Ischnomera cyanea

And then yesterday evening I couldn't resist an hour and a half or so enjoying the unexpected late sunshine and warmth. I nipped over to Huncote Embankment and found a few interesting bits, with three ticks all swept from reeds/carex spp.

Kateretes pusillus

Stenocranus major

Not a great photo, but shows the black longitudinal stripes on the face and the dark tarsal segments on forelegs.

And the last one was only clinched with some helpful banter on Facebook with Devon-based arachnologist Matt Prince - mainly prompted by the highly amusing vernacular for this species ......

Marsh Knob-head (Hypomma biterbaculatum)

This one is a female though with does not have the knobbly bits on its head, and therefore is not a knob-head. ID based on general view of the epigyne as in the photo, and on a very difficult to see character - a fine sensory hair in a particular place on the metatarsus of the rear-most pair of legs (IV).