[ID] Click Beetles.

[Fauna]

Can someone id these for me please.

The largest here is about 10mm, found under stone among Nettles on Heathland.



Size, 10-12mm? Again found under stone among Heather.

[Jenny W]

The first ones look like Agriotes sp.

The second looks like an Athous. To me it's got a look of vittatus about it, but don't count on that!, haemorrhoidalis is the most common though.

[Fauna]

I forgot i put these on

Cheers Jenny, thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I very rarely try to id Click beetles, need to get up to speed with these i think.

[Jenny W]

Yeah I'm getting into Click beetles this year, but there is very little British literature available on them unfortunetely. So little in fact that I can't even seem to find out whether they need to be dissected or not to confirm ID.

So far I've been using photos of card mounted specimens off the internet and using features such as size/shape/colour and size/shape of the pronotum, of the posterior angles on the pronotum and of the elytra - no idea whether this is reliable or not though!

[Paul mabbott]

The key in Joy (A Practical Handbook of British Beetles) is still pretty good although not fully up-to-date. Dissection isn't commonly necessary but lots of the features are microscopic so you do need a still specimen. The various Agriotes spp for instance rely on fairly fine differences (degree of hairiness on the elytra and such).
Be very wary of pictures on the internet: many are wrongly labelled.

[Jenny W]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

The key in Joy (A Practical Handbook of British Beetles) is still pretty good although not fully up-to-date. Dissection isn't commonly necessary but lots of the features are microscopic so you do need a still specimen. The various Agriotes spp for instance rely on fairly fine differences (degree of hairiness on the elytra and such).
Be very wary of pictures on the internet: many are wrongly labelled.

Ah, thanks for the warning! Yeah, a colleage of mine has promised to photocopy for me the click beetle section from Joy so that should help.

[JonSadler]

Hi Jenny

Click beetles are a great group but not easy to identify with pictures. I find Joy's keys difficult to use but there is a good English key (to the Czech fauna)! It covers a lot of the species found in the UK and is easy to follow so worth chasing if you are targeting this group. The details are:

Laibner, S. 2000 Elateridae of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Kabourek, Zlin.

It is not cheap to buy but you can get it from good natural history bookshops (online ones that is). Alternatively, check out libraries - you never know...it might be in one.

Paul is correct about the mislabelled specimens on the internet, it is an awful mess.

All the best.

Regards
Jon

[Jenny W]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for that, I suspected that ID'ing from photos wasn't that reliable! Have had a look at the Czech book and will be keeping an eye out on the internet for a copy - they all seem to be for sale in the US at the moment, none available in UK (out of print unfortunetely) - expensive book and expensive postage but may have to splash out!

Pemberley Books seem to be saying there is a new edition coming out later this year - have you heard anything about this?

I've been using ELATERIDAE (Czech website) as my main reference, it seems to be written by professional Coleopterists.

Many thanks,
Jenny

[JonSadler]

Hi Jenny

No I hadn't heard that. I bought my copy of the book from Pemberley Books a year or two ago. I'll keep an eye out for the new edition.

Cheers
Jon