Staphs and a Snail-eater

Today I spent an hour or so searching beneath logs, rocks and bits of debris for beetles. Mostly I was expecting to find the carabid Nebria brevicollis, a surprise absentee yesterday. Guess what...

Nebria brevicollis - it's a pretty common beetle up here

There are three species of Nebria that could occur up here in Uig, so I need to keep my wits about me and continue checking. I'd hate to think I'm overlooking Nebria salina and Nebria rufescens, both of which occur widely up here. Nebria nivalis is known from Skye too, though presumably only from high, barren mountaintops. Yep, I definitely need to keep scrutinising them all. 

The all important hind tarsi - has a double row of fine hairs in N.brevicollis which are absent in N.salina

So that was brevicollis added to the burgeoning list (3 species of beetle now, oof!) What else could I find? 

This is the finest pile of rocks for miles around!

I've gone through these dumped rocks so many times I've lost track. It's a great hunting ground for slugs, snails, millipedes, centipedes, flatworms, harvestmen, worms, woodlice, nemerteans - and beetles, of course!  

Large carabid in it's cell

I love lifting a rock and finding something like this! Abax and Cychrus make these 'overwintering cells' as I call them, I often find millipedes or slugs curled up inside vacant cells. I can only think that the big bulky beetles know they'd get flattened if a curious entomologist lowered their rock down too quickly, so it's clearly an adaptation to survive folks like me. Truly nature is marvellous.  

This carabid was covered in dirt, something I've come to realise means it's likely to be Cychrus rather than the shiny, clean Abax. A gentle bit of teasing out with a twig later and...

Oooh yeah, that's Cychrus caraboides alright! A female judging by the size of the maxillary palp tips

Those elongated jaws and the narrow head are adaptations to suit its feeding habits. This beetle preys on snails (the genus Oxychilus being favourites - plenty of those here) by jamming it's whole head into the shell. I bumped into Neil, a local chap who, amongst a great many other things, is quite into his beetles. He asked me why they don't feed on slugs too. I couldn't answer that, maybe slugs are too slimy, maybe they're too big and muscular, maybe they fight back! Or maybe it's because Oxychilus smell garlicky and taste better? I just don't know. 

Beneath the same pile of stones I found a rather handsome staphilinid, one I see quite often but haven't ever gotten around to keying through. Terrible behaviour, I do have the book after all. 

Back indoors I made a pretty poor job of the whole carding process. I'll soak it off the card, relax it properly and try again, see if I can't get it to lay a bit flatter and neater than it currently is. 

What a bodge job. Beautiful beetle though

Running it through the keys to genera it dropped out at Tribe Othiini, and then to the genus Othius. From there it was easy - bigger than 9mm (yep, it was 11mm) = Othius punctulatus. I'll refrain from mentioning the fact that I was going around in circles for about an hour, all because I misinterpreted what the key was asking me to check. Maybe I ought to find a grown up to sit beside me when I'm keying stuff from now on. Anyway, got there in the end! I've been shown Othius punctulatus before, but this is the first time I've keyed it for myself and thankfully it's distinctive enough that I can ID it by eye from now on. It's a common beetle which has already been recorded from Skye and Raasay.

You can read lots more about Othius punctulatus by clicking on this page

Back to work tomorrow, I'll do my best to try and find something to blog about though.