Blimey, getting longer between posts but I’m still going which is the main thing. I am doing a lot of writing for work as well as being out in the field a lot (still thanking my lucky stars this year!), but enough with the excuses. Today’s post is about one of the obscure things I was mentioning in my last blog which I don’t really know much about, specifically a beetle this time. I have managed to identify it twice (two individuals) using specialist books called keys. I often find ground beetles (ie: the ones you see crawling across your lawn, not the ones in the trees or on plants – loose description) in the pitfall traps I use to capture and remove newts from building sites and it set my curiosity off, so I have captured a few to take home to identify (they need to be euthanised in order to be identified; but there are thousands of them and in order to be able to protect something you first need to know what you are protecting, and in the case of small creatures, euthanising one or two leads to identification). So onto the specific beetle…
What: Poecilus cupreus (Linnaeus, 1758) – One thing to mention here, one of my keys has a different genus (the first part of the name), but that has been superseded by the one here; something to look for when identifying small relatively unknown creatures (and occasionally well known ones!).
When: 5th May 2020
Where: Winsford, Cheshire (VC58), UK
Who saw it? Me (ID’d it too but this needs checking by someone who has more experience with beetles)
How was it recorded? On iRecord.
Is it bigger than a blackbird? Hmmm… it’s a beetle so what do you think?!
What is it? A medium sized (11-13 mm) ground beetle which is green/copper in colour (it has a slight iridescent sheen which makes it look one colour or the other). From what I can tell they live in fields and in dry areas and are more common the south of England than in the north. And that’s about it; not much more information I can find about them without delving into a dusty library somewhere or undertaking a PhD.
A fact I have found out about this species: Well, everything, including what it is to begin with. But apparently it is found in every country in Europe except the smaller islands (and San Marino and Andorra; it must hate small countries…).
Is it charismatic in my opinion? Erm, not a clue. Ground beetles have made me pay attention to them in general, but as for this species? Who knows…
A Species a Day 