The Lyons Share

Charging Rhino

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Thursday, 3 June 2010 19:55

I split my afternoon off evenly between The Mens and Ebernoe. The first thing I saw at The Mens was the RDB2 saproxylic hymenoptera mimic cranefly Ctenophora flaveolata. It was hanging around in some Holly next to a fallen Beech. The literature says it does not warrant RDB status and it's not all that far from where one was found a month ago. They are amazing looking beasts the Ctenophoras but I am afraid it flew off before I could get a photo. I didn't see much more at The Mens but in Badlands I beat another Anaglyptus mysticus off of Aspen. I only saw my first one yesterday!

I left for Ebernoe and found a smart looking Onthophagus sp. in the glades but little else. Leconfield Glade though was much more interesting. Where the huge Beech started to fall down a few years ago, I found four nationally scarce species on one limb! Hylecoetus dermestoides was new to the site, I saw both male and female. There were four or five Melasis buprestoides crawling over the cracking bark and as I was watching them I saw Ctenophora pectinicornis and Black-headed Cardinal Beetle. There was a Xylota hoverfly hanging around too and the only thing I saw all day that was calm enough to get a photo was this Rhinoceros Beetle running down a Beech stump. I saw a female on the wing and then two males, both legging it straight down a rotten Beech stump, perhaps they had just emerged. Funnily, I keep seeing all these rare deadwood beetles but this is the first time I have seen Rhinoceros Beetle. I noticed that there was a lot more beetle activity in the late afternoon than there had been throughout the whole day.

On the way back to the car I found a flowering shrub covered in inverts, including Wasp Beetle, Speckled Longhorn, green Ischnomera sp. and a load of stuff I have not keyed out yet. I think there are three new saproxylic beetles for Ebernoe I found today. Better get to the microscope...

Posted in beetles, deadwood, Ebernoe Common, flies, The Mens