Hopping Mad

Late into the evening I finally got a chance to sit down and play with the microscope and phone camera and work through bits I brought home from yesterday. Amongst the specimens were two leafhopper species and two ground bug species. I managed to grab quick shots of them whilst live and potted and had a gander through British Bugs. By the end of that exercise, I had what I felt were good IDs for all of them, and three of the four were new to me. All of these were collected from sieving tussocks, so later in the spring I'll make an effort to sweep through the same area and try to get decent shots of these species. In the meantime, I wanted to get shots of key features to support records ..... which is when it happened.

First up was this leafhopper - here's the quickly grabbed shots.

It is a very a good match for one of the Arboridia spp., two very similar species but one is arboreal and likely to be found on oaks in southern UK, the other on calcaerous soils with Common Rockrose. I had managed to see that the anteclypeus was blackish, and was happy that this is Arboridia parvula. I wanted to try and get a clearer shot, so after a dose of ethyl acetate I was trying to manipulate it a bit when my phone camera switched off. I let out a frustrated sigh ... and promptly blew the specimen off the glass plate and into the beyond. No trace. Bugger. Still, I'm happy with the ID and I think the shots just about support it.

After that debacle I managed to hold my breath for the other leafhopper.

Another one I'm confident about, showing a swollen base to the final long antennal segment. This is a reddish form of Dikraneura variata which is widespread and common on grassy heaths.

Of the two ground bugs, this one is new for me though one of the ID features is a bugger to see clearly.

This is Drymus sylvaticus, showing the all-black scutellum and pronotum, and a dark elongate mark by the apex of the clavus. What was harder to get a shot of was the front fermoral teeth, but the tibia lack long erect hairs.

This one I have seen before.

This one is Peritrechus geniculatus, showing the two femoral teeth and antennal width of segment 3 vs segment 1.

Not a bad return for a bit of speculative tussock bothering!