The Lyons Share

This is the Tanner Beetle Prionus coriarius and a bloody huge beast it is too. I've been at The Mens today with Mark Telfer, taking down the interception traps we set-up in May and finishing off the survey on deadwood beetles. This is the first record of Tanner Beetle for the site, and a good record as it is a nationally scarce species (Na) and a mostly nocturnal one. I spotted the beast sitting on a fallen dead Beech limb and it was really well behaved. I'm glad I saw something big today, it seems that by late August, most of the excitement with deadwood beetles concerns very, very small staphylinids and denizens of rotten bracket fungi, things that I am not ready for yet! It has really thick antennae, surely the thickest of any British beetle and the huge kidney shaped eyes wrap right around these antennae and nearly meet in the middle! Amazing!

Now, check the palps out on this! I found this weird spider with HUGE palps behind loose bark close to the ground on a dead Beech. It was odd enough for me to take a photo and ID the specimen. It's  Labulla thoracica, it's a common and widespread species of shaded woodland but a new one for me. I think I'll make today a two-parter as there was a lot going on beyond the deadwood and if I carry on like this I'll be in serious danger of using too many exclamation marks!!!