Battling with beetles...

If the ground beetles (Carabidae) are like the European Knights of the 13th century - soldiers encased in ungainly, heavy steel plate armour...

Carabus nemoralis - Goat Meadow at Gatwick

...then the rove beetles (Staphylinidae) are the fearsome Mongolian warriors of the steppes, with overlapping scales of iron and flexible leather, allowing for furiously fast attacks on the enemy (I've been reading a lot of Conn Iggulden historical fiction of late).

Devil's Coach Horse (Ocypus olens) - Photo by W J Heeney

As mortal enemies, Carabids and Staphs will go into battle and the result comes down to the size of beast, which is highly variable. The biggest, baddest of the rove beetles is the Devil's Coach Horse pictured above, which makes Genghis Khan look like a lovable chap who'd give out free hugs.

Last Saturday was the Staphylinidae Identification Workshop with the British Entomological and Natural History Society, lead by Roger Booth and Peter Hodge. It was another excellent day of networking with beginner and expert entomologists alike, learning about the fearsome (and sometimes beautiful) variety of rove beetles.

Roger Booth lead the workshop on Saturday at Dinton Pastures

For me, it was throw back to entomology lessons at Royal Holloway University - Dr Angus was the lecturer who described invertebrate sexual strategy in such graphic detail, that his lectures became infamous (there's even a facebook page in his honour, with one lengthy thread on locust bits which is very NSFW).

A clumsy abdominal dissection

However, I'm not really sure how Dr A. would feel about this; my first attempt since uni at beetle genitalia dissection in order to determine the exact species... Needs a little more practice.

Tergites IX and X, plus one really mashed up aedeagus (male organ)

Aedeagi aside, all beetles at have the same basic body plan. Instead of iron, their exoskeleton is actually made up of a hardened material called chitin, particularly obvious in the solid wing cases (elytra). In Staphylinids, the wings are folded away and the wing case is particularly shortened, allowing for more flexibility in the body.

From Staphylinidae of Britain and Ireland

These are a few I've found about the place so far at Gatwick, usually lurking underneath reptile refugia and bits of bark...

Devil's Coach Horse (Ocypus olens) - a monsterous 30mm

This little bullet-shapped jobby is Tachinus rufipes - around 6mm in length

Drusilla canaliculata (some species names make even adult entomologists snigger), about 5mm

Mongol warriors, about 5ft 7"

Platydracus sp. Another large staph at around 20mm.

Photo by W J Heeney

There is something like 1,000 species of rove beetles in the UK, so lets just say I've got a few more to go! Thanks to Roger and Peter for a brilliant and inspiring workshop. 

Ground Beetles (Carabids) workshop

When we were kids in the 90's, my bro and I would squabble over who got to be the first to read the new issue of 'Bugs' magazine (I think that was what it was called). It came with free 3D specs for a double-page center image of a terrifying invertebrate, plus collectible glow-in-the-dark pieces of a spider model. It was also where I first read about the obnoxious habits of carabid beetles such as the Bombardier, which can spray a nasty concoction of boiling chemicals from their rear ends into the faces of predators... Those rascals.

Beetle body-plan: the weirdly named Sausage Ground Beetle (Carabus granulatus)

Last Saturday I visited the British Entomological and Natural History Society at Dinton Pastures, Reading to take part in the Ground Beetle (Carabidae) identification workshop. This is the 4th BENHS workshop I've been along to now and each one is uniquely fascinating.

Entomologist John Walters with the BENHS collection of Carabids

Today's course was jointly run by entomologists Mark Telfer (of Pan-species listing fame) and John Walters. It began with a presentation introducing the Carabidae family of beetles and their wonderful diversity in the UK. These include your classic black Ground Beetles, stunning Peacock Beetles, monstrous Tiger Beetles and the relatively tiny Bembidions.

Mark's precisely labelled and positioned specimens

Beetles are like living tanks with awesome customized add-ons which vary depending on their lifestyles. Being almost entirely predatory, carabids are monsters of the undergrowth with huge, curved jaws, massive eyes and spiked sprinting legs... Pimp My Beetle wouldn't work as a TV show, as they are already too damn pimped. 

Carabus granulatus (Sausage Ground Beetle) under the microscope. 

My Sony Xperia phone seems to take fairly good images this way 

The classroom session involved selecting specimens from the workshop collection and trying out different identification books and keys, including handy worksheets produced by Mark and John. These guys are on a mission to make the study and identification of insects (entomology) more accessible to beginners...

A detailed identification key to the features of Carabid beetles

But these brilliant worksheets were much more user-friendly

Superficially similar: Carabus granulatus on the left, Carabus arvensis on the right.

Of course is it always a beautiful day whenever microscopes are involved! Fortunately we had the opportunity to step outside for some live beetle handling/wrangling, learning about useful identification features out in the field:

Beetle wrangling (like a boss)

A live Violet Ground Beetle (Carabus violaceus) in the hand. 

The idea is to firmly grasp the middle and hind legs, which mostly immobilizes them so you can then examine from all angles. Their nip doesn't hurt too bad (unless you have open cracks on the sides of your thumb, then it bloody hurts).

Flipping the beetle

Momentary distraction with 3 Red Kites flying over our heads

At the end of the day, Mark demonstrated mounting a dead beetle specimen onto card... not your classic hallmark type of card (although I bet Mark wouldn't mind receiving one like that).

My first mounted Gatwick beetle specimen: Black Clock Beetle (Pterostichus madidus)

I had a sort through some of the Gatwick pitfall-trap sample jars, in which we had just 2 very common carabid species: Pterostichus madidus and Abax parallelepipedus.

So I'm 2 species down with some way to go before I amass a collection like Mark's. Hmmm, I forgot to ask when exactly he started off...

Mark Telfer's Website : A great resource for beetle identification keys and literature.

John Walter's Website : Beautiful natural history illustrations as well as downloadable identification keys

British Entomological and Natural History Society : Field meetings and indoor workshops, open to anyone with an interest in the astounding diversity of UK insects and other invertebrates.