Beetle, brown & hairy 3mm

[JRsbugs]

Hi,

I've been searching Coccinellidae for this as it looks a little like Scymnus but some parts don't seem to fit.

Size 3mm, taken on 1st March 2010 fished out of my pond. Help please!

Janet

[Paul mabbott]

Is the greenis iridescence real or a photographic artefact?
I see striations (grooves and ridges) on the elytra which would rule out the Coccinellidae. Mmmmm must go and make dinner now.

[Fauna]

Hi Janet

Going for a total guess here...but to me this looks like something from the Byrrhidae lot, something along the lines of Simplocaria semistriata??

[JRsbugs]

Paul, the greenish effect will be the water drops on the hairs, it was in the pond.

Thanks Chris, I think you got it!

BioLib - Image - Simplocaria semistriata

[Klaas Reißmann]

Genus Simplocaria is right, but I don't know how many of the three species of Central Europe can be found in Britain and I have never seen any of them, but S. semistriata. They are close together.

Regards
Klaas

[JRsbugs]

Hi Klaas, how does mine compare to those you have seen?

Chris did mention the other possibility to me which was S. maculosa but he hadn't seen that one either.

I found drawings on Fauna Germanica, S. maculosa looks a better fit for the shape as well as the base line of the pronotum. It also appears to have those water drops in the hairs! Not sure if they are water drops or other marks..

FAUNA GERMANICA (1911)

There is only one record on th NBN Gateway but that is not far north of me, and the records on there are not well represented.

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi Janet,

can you tell for sure, that the metallic shine is not a technical problem, but the beetles colour? Simplocaria metallica is a very rare species and the only one in Central Europe metall coloured, but it even is found absolutely rare. In Germany there are only reports from Bavaria and just a few. My problem is, that the hairs does not fit to the discription I found in the FHL. The hairs seem to be very long and standing more or less. That's normally Simplocaria semistriata.

If you collected the beetle, you should send it to someone for Determination. I would take it in this case, but I guess shipping is by far to expensive for this. Maybe someone of the british Coleopterologist would take a look on this specimen.

Regards
Klaas

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by Klaas Reißmann

Hi Janet,

can you tell for sure, that the metallic shine is not a technical problem, but the beetles colour? Simplocaria metallica is a very rare species and the only one in Central Europe metall coloured, but it even is found absolutely rare. In Germany there are only reports from Bavaria and just a few. My problem is, that the hairs does not fit to the discription I found in the FHL. The hairs seem to be very long and standing more or less. That's normally Simplocaria semistriata.

If you collected the beetle, you should send it to someone for Determination. I would take it in this case, but I guess shipping is by far to expensive for this. Maybe someone of the british Coleopterologist would take a look on this specimen.

Regards
Klaas

Klaas, I don't collect, just take pics unless it was dead already and I rescued this one. I can't be sure about the colour, all I can say is I have rescued a lot of things from the pond and no other has shown this colour. Water drops usually look like water drops, clear.

If you click on the pics again you will get a bigger pic, the unusual thing is the colour spots are showing in all pics from all angles and if there was some small drops of water showing the colour it could easily be reflecting from the beetle.

Look at this pic, there's specks of blue on the side of the pronotum too.

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi Janet,

I tried to compare your pics with pics of Simplocaria in the net. I think the metallic shine is a technical problem. The hairs are to long and in my mind stand up to straight for Simplocaria metallica. I guess that it is Simplocaria semistriata, but this is filled with imponterabilities higher than the Mount Everest. Genus simplocaria is everything but easy to determine. The three species of Central Europe are really close together and most of the differentiating factors can't be seen in photographs.

I'm sorry I can't help better.

Regards
Klaas

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by Klaas Reißmann

Hi Janet,

I tried to compare your pics with pics of Simplocaria in the net. I think the metallic shine is a technical problem. The hairs are to long and in my mind stand up to straight for Simplocaria metallica. I guess that it is Simplocaria semistriata, but this is filled with imponterabilities higher than the Mount Everest. Genus simplocaria is everything but easy to determine. The three species of Central Europe are really close together and most of the differentiating factors can't be seen in photographs.

I'm sorry I can't help better.

Regards
Klaas

I have looked at some other pics on water, I have an occasional white spot with blue edges but that is on the water such as next to springtails. I noticed a tiny amount of blue on the head of a Helophorus sp. which has a metallic head and also white patches with blue edges on the wet moss around it. Yes, it could be something to do with the flash reflecting on water as the hairs would have had water droplets amongst them.

BUT, the pics I found of Simplocaria semistriata show them to be less hairy than mine, and black which matches well with that on Fauna Germanica. Also the shape seems to match the drawing better and the elytra doesn't look to have such deep striations. The one on biolib doesn't look like mine at all but as you say they are close together so they must also be variable?

BioLib - Image - Simplocaria semistriata

Could it be Morychus aeneus?

No specimen, no luck.