Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

The Beetles

I've managed to get behind with moth recording summaries - not completely sure why, but usual mid summer apathy may be involved. I'll catch up on the garden this evening to post tomorrow, and I'll also have a summary of a session at Cossington Meadows from last Saturday night.

In the meantime, here are some big beetles that turned up at moth traps on Saturday night ..

Great Diving Beetle
Great Diving Beetle at Cossington Meadows - a superb big female

Lesser Stag Beetle
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 ..

Burying Beetle - Nicrophorus investigator
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:

Paul Riddle said...

Bloody hell mate they all look as though they would be better placed in some sci-fi horror movie!!!!
Great images though, super detail.

Stewart said...

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....

Skev said...

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 ...

Stewart said...

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...