Saturday's patch walkabout filled in some gaps in the tree
and bird species noted from New Year's day. I also added a couple of moss
species that I'm fairly certain of (Dicranum
scoparium and Mnium hornum); a
woodlouse, Oscilus asellus; a lichen,
Physcia adscendens; the Common
Earwig; the Birch Catkin Bug, Kleidocerys
resedae, found wedged in a rotten larch stump; and a ground beetle from
under a birch log that keyed out to Nebria
brevicollis. This brings me to 60 species so far.
I also found a click beetle under the bark on another birch
log which keyed out to a fiddly species pair: Melanotus villosus/castanipes. What had previously been recorded as
just M. villosus in the UK was found
to actually be two species in 2004. Unfortunately I can't find the info on the details for
distinguishing the two. I've read suggestions that it can be done on overall
length or by pitting on the pronotum, or that only outlier specimens are
distinctive enough to be ID’d visually and molecular methods are required.
Anyone have any idea or access to the relevant paper? It’s about 17½mm long.
Rob,
ReplyDeleteI've given up trying to tell castanipes and villosus apart. I was severely discouraged when I took a load of specimens to the NHM and Howard, who introduced the split to the British list, couldn't be sure which was which either. Just count it as vill/cast and be done!
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