[ID] Insects under logs

[Jason Green]

Hi all,

I went out looking for Carabids today and subsequently got down to turning slates/logs over. No Carabids, but a few others...

10/03/2010

4mm woodlouse. Young Philoscia muscorum or other?

10/03/2010

About 3mm. Familiar as the type of fast-moving insect you expose under decking or similar.

This exercise, though fruitless to original intention, was very worthwhile and added several new species to 2010, including the Globular Springtail Dicyrtomina fusca and a Bristletail.

Any help with identifications appreciated.

Take care,

Jason

[Dogghound]

The beetle is a member of the Scarabaeidae. I just carnt quite put a genus to it, I thought perhaps Psammodiinae or Aphodiinae sub-family. I will have to take a closer look, unless anyone answers before.

[Jason Green]

Thanks Dan - Aphodiinae looks close

[Jason Green]

Any chance the first is the Common Pygmy Woodlouse? I've just been going through an online list of British woodlice (I found out we have a species endemic to Glamorgan!) and came across this one.

I found it under a moss-covered brick half-submerged in mud.

[Rossco]

That beetle is tricky. Like Dogghound says, it's a scarabaeid and the only genus I know of this size and shape is Saprosites. There's only one species in the UK, S. mendax, which is actually an import from Australia. In the UK, it is found in the southeast.

[Rossco]

It turns out there are two species of Saprosites in the UK. The other is S. natalensis. S. mendax is supposed to be black, so the one you found could be S. natalensis.

[Jason Green]

Thanks Rossco