The weevil was, in the end, straightforward. It always helps when you manage
to sweep them from a particular plant, and this one came from Meadow
Crane's-bill. Imagine my joy when Googling 'weevil on meadow crane's-bill'
brought up identical black weevils with a small raised 'neck' called Meadow
Crane's-bill Weevil ....
Zacladus geranii
The flea beetle was not straightforward. I actually had four in a pot that all
came from sweeping Viper's Bugloss at Ketton Quarry. I was checking for
Mogulones geographicus but ended up with a net absolutely heaving with lots of
what appeared to be the same flea beetle. As far as I can tell they're one of
the Longitarsus spp., and a bit of trawling shows up a species pair that could
well be in eastern VC55 on Viper's Bugloss - L. aeneicollis and L.
nasturtii, either of which would I think be new to VC55 ....
I can hear you shouting from here: 'Longitarsus - yeah, right!'. I could be way
off in all respects - either not Longitarsus, or just one of the polyphageous
spp. Internet images of the Longitarsus spp. seem to be all over the place
which does not help. Anyway I got a couple over to Graham Finch today who is
hopefully much better placed to get an ID one way or another.
1 comment:
*goes to sweep meadow cranesbill....
I dissect all Longitarsus as a matter of course. The keys are bloody awful
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