Bug on the washing line last summer, ID needed!

[Dogghound]

So these orange legs may be a colour morph. Or perhaps they are from recently emerged specimens that have failed to develop their full colour at the time of capture/photograph, this is indeed common in beetles to take time to gain full colouration.

[Jason Green]

A lack of 100% identification happens a lot in wildlife, due to the importance of conservation and logging locations of certain species it's adviseable to just put the genus or even family name if there's any question over it - my database features a lot of genus/family.sp!

Sometimes a specimen needs dissection to identify with 100% certainty. This individual is a toughie, and quite interesting. I personally concur it must be Hoplia philanthus, too.

It was a good request!

...

[oxycera]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

So these orange legs may be a colour morph. Or perhaps they are from recently emerged specimens that have failed to develop their full colour at the time of capture/photograph, this is indeed common in beetles to take time to gain full colouration.

Males have black legs, female orange

[Dogghound]

Cheers oxycera something new ive learned here.

[meinchewster]

I have watched this thread develop with interest and im impressed with the knowledge base of the posters. Personally, entomology is an area that i find very rewarding but have specialised in aquatic inverts rather than terrestrial.
With this in mind, i would like to improve in this so I was wondering if anyone could reccomend any keys or guides for intermediate upwards. I know from aquatic inverts, keys are generally specific to families, but is there any expanded keys that contain more than one group down to species level?

I ask this because i can tell its going to get expensive if im buying keys for each group.

Any thoughts welcome.

[oxycera]

There are no all embracing keys to british insects. Some orders, say Lacewings, or families, say Shield Bugs, are well covered as there are relatively few species but when you are looking at flies or beetles then you have to specialise and obtain the relevant books, keys, monographs, journals, foreign papers etc., etc.,
Best thing to do is to decide which groups you want to record and find out what is required. Your local library could help obtain some items if cost is an issue.

[meinchewster]

I guessed that would be the case, and thankyou for your imput. I am interested in some groups more than others but I would like to try and tackle as wide a spectrum as possible not soley for recording but for the challenge of learning.

I guess id better start saving the pennies!

again, any specific guides that are highly reccomended would be a good start, maybe families of the beetles, shield bugs, british spiders, all of which interest me.

thanks again

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by Acutipuerilis

(And there's no guarantee the WCG have got it right! )

At the top of the page of thumbnails on wcg it states:

Specimens pictured on the following pages have been identified by the WCG, that is to say that from whatever source the specimens originated, unless otherwise stated, they have been verified by Mr. D.Hodges and/or Mr. D.Murray

Sounds quite definite to me.

Janet

[Kirani]

With regards to my post saying could it be a fruit chafer beetle, I was refering to Eudicella smithi, there is a photograph on the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (here - O.U.M.N.H. Site Search (long description)) that looked similar although a lot brighter in colour that the photo which originally started this post. I'm not sure if this species can survive in England as unfortunately I don't know much about entomology at present, (am learning though... I think)