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| 1 | 2 |  » Stats |
Members: 50,149
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Top Poster: glsammy (15,069)
| | Welcome to our newest member, TransAmDan | |  | 
15-02-2009, 11:28 AM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: South Northants
Posts: 3,289
| | | Unidentified beetle with orange dots on elytra
Stony Stratford, Bucks. 13th Feb 2009. Size 5mm.
Saw several of these yesterday and some very similar looking ones without the orange dots (will post later). Help with identification appreciated. 
Bruce  |
15-02-2009, 11:36 AM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: On the southern boundary of the Lake District National Park.
Posts: 4,581
| | | Re: Unidentified beetle with orange dots on elytra
Sexton Beetle? life stage. |
15-02-2009, 12:36 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: knowle, solihull (just south of b'ham)
Posts: 2,830
| | | Re: Unidentified beetle with orange dots on elytra
Quote: |
Sexton Beetle? life stage.
| it is a Stenus sp.
Last edited by squishy; 15-02-2009 at 12:39 PM.
|
15-02-2009, 12:55 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Wye Valley, Mid-Wales
Posts: 1,160
| | | Re: Unidentified beetle with orange dots on elytra
Quote:
Originally Posted by squishy  it is a Stenus sp. | Possibly S. bimaculatus?
Steve |
15-02-2009, 03:17 PM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 7,655
| | | Re: Unidentified beetle with orange dots on elytra
Yes definitely one of the small, day-active rove beetles - Staphylinidae: Steninae. From my reading of the scriptures this can only be (in UK) Stenus bimaculatus or S. guttula, both of which are local species found by rivers and ponds.
There are two differentiating factors: size ( guttula is up to 4.5 mms long while bimaculatus is 5mms or more long); the presence on the "hindbody .... a longitudinal keel in the middle of the base of each basal segment" on S. bimaculatus and not so on S. guttula ....  |
15-02-2009, 04:32 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: South Northants
Posts: 3,289
| | | Re: Unidentified beetle with orange dots on elytra
Thanks everybody for your help with identification.
The pic was taken with my little Canon A650 and carefully measurement of the image against my reference pic suggests that the insect cannot be less than 5mm although it could just be slightly larger (6mm max).
If anyone's interested there are some very nice illustrations of rove beetles that can be viewed/downloaded here: FAUNA GERMANICA (1908)
Bruce |
16-02-2009, 09:47 AM
| | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 7,655
| | | Re: Unidentified beetle with orange dots on elytra
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce Williams Thanks everybody for your help with identification.
The pic was taken with my little Canon A650 and carefully measurement of the image against my reference pic suggests that the insect cannot be less than 5mm although it could just be slightly larger (6mm max).
If anyone's interested there are some very nice illustrations of rove beetles that can be viewed/downloaded here: FAUNA GERMANICA (1908)
Bruce | That's a new one to me, thanks. I wonder if the names are up-to-date? |
16-02-2009, 12:32 PM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 662
| | | Re: Unidentified beetle with orange dots on elytra
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul mabbott That's a new one to me, thanks. I wonder if the names are up-to-date? | No, certainly not! 
It's the old Fauna Germanica by Edmund Reitter - the complete works are available as PDF files too: here (bottom of page). The old works/plates from Calwer (Käferbuch) and Ja(c|k)obson (Beetles of Russia) and probably many more can also be easily found on the internet. Some have also been transferred to Wikimedia Commons and/or archive.org. Sorry, no time to find all the links now.
The old plates are great, but of limited use as a reference as you'll have to spend time finding modern names and the intricacies of historic misinterpretations etc., but quite nice to have on the digital bookshelf nevertheless 
Last edited by Pudding4brains; 16-02-2009 at 12:37 PM.
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