6th December
I went into my garden today and looked desperately for something that isn’t a bird. A fruitless task when the temperature is 4 degrees Celsius. Sure I can write about a squirrel or a random garden plant but I wanted something a bit more obscure today. I found a lichen on the apple tree, but I have no idea what it is and the internet is no help. So I’ve dug into my 2020 archive of wildlife sightings for something obscure.
Loricera pilicornis (Fabricius, 1775) a ground beetle
This species doesn’t have an English name yet apparently is one of the most common ground beetles in the UK. I found my specimen in April when I was working as an ecologist. I was checking pitfall traps for newts and other amphibians, but the traps also contained a lot of ground beetles. Me being curious I took a couple of different looking ones home to identify (the site was being developed so the survival chances of most of the beetles was not high so taking one or two to be identified would be of no harm to the general population, the development was seeing to that). It is about 7mm in length, is black in colour and has hairy antenna – the key ID feature. I actually identified it wrong using my book and I was corrected by an expert after I reported my sighting. But I will know for next time, the whole point of learning.
Advent species so far:
- 1st: Goosander Mergus merganser
- 2nd: December Moth Poecilocampa populi
- 3rd: Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum
- 4th Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus
- 5th Cape Sparrow Passer melanurus
- 6th Loricera pilicornis
A Species a Day 