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First for Sussex!
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Saturday, 12 June 2010 20:09
Jo and I went to Eridge Rocks this afternoon. Literally in the car park there is a nice old oak tree with red rot running right through. A lot of crumbling red rot has fallen at the base of the tree and formed a thick layer. I went straight to the tree, which I photographed, and found this beetle almost straight away. It is Pseudocistela ceramboides, a saproxylic darkling beetle. According to 'The Invertebrates of Living & Decaying Timber' it is a species associated with wood mould in hollowed, decaying trees, exactly where I found it. It is nationally scarce (Nb) and a grade 2 Indicator of Ecological Continuity but get this, Peter Hodge just told me it is a first for Sussex! I had a good feeling that there would be some good saproxylics at Eridge Rocks and I am sure there is more there to find. I may have seen Melandrya caraboides too but it buggered off before I could get a good look at it.
Other additions to the site list were Lesser Stage Beetle and Common Grammoptera and I saw another Tillus elongatus.
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