Beatle id pls

galanthus · #1 (**permalink**) 26-02-2010, 07:03 PM

Hello lovely mateys, spring is here yayyy

Wandering around a coastal path in Polperro, Cornwall this week and found lots of these beatles, some mating, some lone. Think these may be Bloody-Nosed Beetles - Timarcha tenebricosa ? Could someone confirm for me pls ? Thanks

Dogghound · #2 (**permalink**) 26-02-2010, 07:09 PM

Yep Timarcha tenebricosa. These seem active extremely early though.

galanthus · #3 (**permalink**) 26-02-2010, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Yep Timarcha tenebricosa. These seem active extremely early though.

Fantastic thanx

I too thought they were a little early, I missed them as I had my head up in the air looking for birds while trainee WAB member ......... new boyfriend

............ spotted them on the ground. There were around 20 in total that were visible in an area of 50m or so. Beautiful things. I wondered though, are the beige/golden bits on the feet used for clamping onto the mate ? Or are they present all of the time ?

Dogghound · #4 (**permalink**) 26-02-2010, 07:21 PM

They are present all of the time and are not specific to breeding.

It must have been a prolonged period of warm weather. This species is usually seen towards April.

ChrisR · #5 (**permalink**) 26-02-2010, 07:23 PM

The pale brown bits are just the pads on the tarsi - used for gaining grip on all surfaces ... in this species they are quite large - I always think they look like they have huge clown's feet

I have never been entirely sure why they need them that big though because they seem to be incredibly ungainly even with them

BTW, when I first read the subject I thought that you had a photo of the 'fab 4' and needed to know which one was John Lennon