Staphylinid beetle

 This tiny rove (staphylinid) beetle, about 5mm. long, found its way into the house, probably on washing dried on the washing line. But it might have flown in through an open window - the wings are tightly packaged under the wing cases, that look like a miniature back-pack, in the centre of the insect. These small staphylinids are weak fliers, generating enough lift to get airborne, but after that they’re at the mercy of wherever the wind and air currents take them.

Exploring the undergrowth

I spent a couple of hours last week, on a warm, humid afternoon, exploring the undergrowth at Deepdale Nature Reserve in Barnard Castle. The boggy ground on either side of the footpath was overgrown with butterburr leaves, meadowsweet, vetches, red campion and docks and was seething with insects and spiders.  These are a few that I managed to capture on camera. 

Earwig  - for more about earwigs click here

Female scorpionfly

Male scorpionfly - for more about scorpionflies click here

The beautifully iridescent green dock leaf beetle  - for more about this species click here

A sawfly that I haven't managed to ID for sure yet - for more sawflies click here 

A spider, Tetragnatha extensa, with a golden abdomen. For more spiders click here.

A very bug-eyed mayfly - possibly Ephemera danica. For more on mayflies click here.

A common green capsid bug Lygocoris pabulinus - for more on capsid bugs click here

A staphylinid beetle stretching its wings....

..... curling up its tail in characteristic defensive mode ....

..... and with its wings packed away, showing the extremely short wing cases. For more staphylinid beetles click here

Devil's coach horse

This devil's coach horse beetle Ocypus olens crossed out path when we were walking along the promenade from Tynemouth to North Shields this lunchtime. These are usually most active after dark, when they hunt slugs and other small insects, so it's quite unusual to see one out and about at mid-day in bright sunshine.

Devil's coach horses are staphylinid beetles (commonly known as rove beetles), which characteristically have very short wing covers (elytra). 

This is one of the largest British staphylinids but the smaller ones (some only a millimetre or two long) fly very well; I'm not sure if devil's coach horses do fly, but if they do it would be something to see.......... the old engraving below suggests that they can get airborne... 

They do have characteristic and quite intimidating defensive behaviour, cocking up that long tail and opening their needle-sharp jaws. This one didn't oblige, despite being poked, but there are quite a few movies of this defensive behaviour posted on YouTube - this is a good one...