Jeanne Robinson

What a fun and frenetic week. Media interest in the Coll oil-beetles has undergone a small explosion. I have been chatting to journalists from the Oban times and Scotsman (http://news.scotsman.com/news/Beetle-mania-as-39extinct39-insect.6423196.jp) this week about our findings. The Metro have picked up on the story and written a short piece and this afternoon I am off to be interviewed for the BBC Radio Scotland on their News drive programme. There are only a few factual inaccuracies that have crept into the reports so far which is a relief.

Note the long tail of this Mallota hoverfly pupae

I have been allowed out of the office once for good behaviour. I met up with one of our countryside rangers at the Pollok Country Park here in Glasgow to investigate her latest interesting findings. Lindsay is very keen on insects and has become fascinated by the hoverflies that breed in the aged and decaying trees that litter the park. She discovered some larvae with enormously long tails (which are actually breathing tubes) that she found in sycamore and horse chestnut trees bought along to Geoff (Hunterian Museum, Glasgow) and myself to examine. She had enjoyed watched them contracting and relaxing their incredibly long tails to move up and down in their respective rot holes….entomologists have no need for cable television. Geoff keyed out the larvae as the notable species Mallota cimbiciformis and we have since confirmed their identity by rearing the adults.

They are quite large for hoverflies and are impressive bee mimics. They are generally regarded as elusive but may be spotted foraging on the flowers of bramble, hogweed and roses or hovering around rot. The are scarce in Britain generally and as far as I recall there is only one other Scottish record from 1996 from the Clyde Valley. You don’t have to go far to discover interesting things when you study insects.

Mallota feeding on Bramble. Thanks to Bill Higgins for the photo

I am off to visit friends and family next week which generally hampers serious entomologising but promise to update you if I do see anything of note. If not I shall be back blogging on the 26th of July. Bye for now.

It has been a productive time in the entomology department since I last blogged.  I have made the final object selection and have been writing the text for our Metamorphosis display. It is always satisfying to see an exhibition coming together. We have some lovely insect life-history displays that we bought from France at the turn of the 20th century and some life-cycles in spirit from a similar period that illustrate metamorphosis beautifully. The exhibition is being co-ordinated by our Open Museum and is destined for the Springburn Leisure Centre in Glasgow. The Open Museum is a fantastic initiative that ensures that our collections reach the widest possible audience by taking the collections to them, rather than waiting for them to come to us.

We also have a few display cases destined for our foyer at the Glasgow Museum Resource centre that will endeavour to show the full breadth and depth of the collections that are stored there.  I had selected some of our most colourful and striking scarab beetles for the purpose. The specimens lustre had suffered slightly from a century of accumulated grime. Having given them a gentle scrub around the carapaces in an alcohol bath, they are now gleaming.

Sam and our beetles

My volunteer Sam has been in to help me to curate our British beetles.  He is paid as a visitor assistant for the museum but loves being behind the scenes working on the collections.  He has a good eye for detail, a very steady hand and a growing enthusiasm for the subject, which combine to make his contributions invaluable.  There is still an awful lot to be done to improve the accessibility of our insect collections and volunteer help ensures this work happens a little faster….perhaps within my life time.

I have had news from Geoff. He has been sorting through the specimens that we caught from the malaise traps and light traps during our fieldwork in the Inner Hebrides. Following dissection of a selection of small yellow craneflies and a check of their genitalia, he was able to confirm the notable species Erioptera nielseni is active around the Ballyhaugh Loch in Coll. There is only one other Scottish record of this species from Perthshire back in 1977. This species is usually associated with slightly base-enriched fens and bogs. Garth said his meter showed the loch to be neutral (pH7). Perhaps there are localised base-rich patches where shell sand blows in to the edges or a more alkali pH may not be absolutely crucial to larval development. That’s all for now.

Diving beetle (Dytiscus sp.) road kill enquiry

Our road traffic victim showing off his belly

The last few days have flown by at the museum. Summer is always a busy time for enquiries. Many of my enquiries come in the form of digital photographs now. The quality of the macro on many pocket cameras and even mobile phones can be very good but I still get the odd blurry one, from which it can be hard enough to tell if the subject is animal, vegetable or mineral, let alone what type of insect it is.  Even on the good shots I can’t always see what I need to for species level identifications but quite often this is not of concern to the enquirer. They just want to know what kind of thing has landed on their garden fence, has bitten them or has been lurking in their bath tub. At other times species level identification is required, particularly amongst conservation professionals who require more precise biological records and who commonly make use of my services. Today a locust from Yorkshire and diving beetle road kill from the Glasgow area arrived in my inbox for entomological scrutiny. Locusts can migrate to the UK from warmer climes but they can also escape from British pet food suppliers, where they are sold as live food for reptiles and from laboratories/schools, where they are kept for study. Diving beetles must fly around to colonise new ponds, it is suggested that the reflections off shiny objects such as car roofs may be mistaken for a water surface, which could help explain how they end up as traffic casualties.

Aside from enquiries I have been investigating the Scottish status of the rare and  stunning beetle Cryptocepalus aureolus (the one we found on Coll) a little further with help from my fieldwork companions. Between the NBN (National Biodiversity Network) records and the entomological collections of the Hunterian Zoology Museum, Glasgow and Glasgow Museums collections (my own) we have found only 5 records so far. Darren is going to check the NHM in London for Scottish specimens and I am heading over to the Scottish National Museum collections in Edinburgh to see what they’ve got in their drawers and archives.

Leaf beetle - Cryptocephalus aureolas on Ranunculus on Coll

So that is the fieldwork over, more’s the pity.  Arrived back in Glasgow after an uneventful but painless journey. An incredibly successful trip all in all. Not only did we find our rare and special oil beetles (Meloe brevicollis) alive and well, we have also confirmed two new sites for them on the island of Coll (39 beetles seen at 4 sites in total). Our second public talk last night was even better attended than the Tiree one and the question and answer session showed a great level of interest…Darren was horse when it finally concluded. We are hopeful that the attendees will share their new insect sightings with us as oil beetles are a group that can often be diagnosed with good photos taken from the right angle.

The general insect surveys we conducted will provide the national recording schemes and the conservation agencies on the islands with far more comprehensive insect species to use. Darren found about 14 species of dung beetle on Tiree and 12 on Coll.  Garth recorded a total of 57  different water beetle species (45 from Tiree and 35 from Coll), only 23 of which were shared by both islands. Having seen both islands it comes as little surprise that their insects are quite different, as they are very different in character. Geoff had the toughest time finding his insects, the tipulids (craneflies/daddy longlegs), not due to any lack of technique but because overall it has been very dry for the last month in the Hebrides and daddy long legs need moisture. He still managed to record 9 species on Tiree and 17 on Coll. I still have rather a lot of specimens to identify and will enhance the list further still as soon as I can.

We found the tiny, gorgeous shiny green chrysomelid Cryptocephalus aureolus grazing on the pollen of hawk bit and buttercup at 3 of the sites we went to survey. This notable species appears to be doing quite well in the pristine dune systems of the Scottish Islands. There are only 3 Scottish records according to the National Biodiversity Network distribution maps, the most northerly of which is for Nethy Bridge in Moray. There may be other Scottish records tucked away in the literature and in museum collections, so I will need to investigate a bit further to find out how interesting find it really is.

Need to sort out some nice images for you, then off to bed. Tomorrow I will be popping along to my allotment to see whether my resident invertebrates have left me any food to eat. Monday back to the museum. Bye for now.

Short-necked oil beetle

Serendipity and entomology go hand in hand. Today the ferry from Tiree to Coll was delayed due to engine problems. We seized the opportunity to investigate the insect life around the ferry terminal until the boat arrived. In this short window of time Garth found the dytiscid Ilybius guttiger, which has only recently been recorded spreading North in Southern Scotland on the mainland. There are no other records from Scottish islands, let alone anything this northerly. He commented at the time that said specimen didn’t smell right for the more likely species (I. aenescens) he’d expected it to be, which is also known as the jock-strap beetle due to it’s manly aroma. I hope one day I’m good enough to identify insects using only my nose.

Coll is very different to Tiree. It is lusher and more undulating, with more natural water courses; full of entomological promise. Following a damp start to the day we went back to base to drop off our soggy specimens, ring out our socks and dry out our nets. Sod’s law, as soon as we got inside the sun burst through the clouds. As we sat down for dinner, the RSPB warden Ben arrived with another serendipitous discovery, our target species, the short-necked oil beetle (Meloe brevicollis). During the short burst of sunshine he had found it next to the path in the dunes adjacent to where we are staying. It is really great to see the beetle in the flesh? chitin? it really is a fabulous little creature. It is also reassuring to know that the beetles are alive and well at the site they were discovered last year. They were found at one other site on the island that we hope to investigate tomorrow. Darren had spied a field full of Highland cattle, whose dung he is hoping to get a look at…busy, busy, busy.

Another good day for insect surveying in general.  On the oil beetle front, we have continued to scour the coast for any signs of life. We have caught a fair number of Colletes bees and inspected their hairy bits for oil beetle larvae, who are trying to hitch back to their nests to kill the bees young and eat their food.  So far the bees and flower heads are clean and no sightings of the adult beetles.  The Colletes we are finding are mostly males, which emerge before the females.  The males just mate and die they do not nest like the ladies.  It may be that the larvae will emerge a little later here on Tiree to correspond with the peak in the number of female bees, which would obviously maximise their survival chances.

One of the very satisfying thing about our last night here has been meeting the residents of Tiree.  Twelve people came along and showed great interest in the presentations and the beetle specimens we had brought along for show and tell. The hotel staff unfortunately disposed of one of our display beetles before we could share it with our audience, probably for fear of environmental health involvement.  Best of all one of the attendees is the local high school science teacher and he is keen to get his students looking out for oil beetles on Tiree and to teaching them about their fascinating biology. These new recruits  will greatly increase our chances of finding the beetles if they are on Tiree.

Oil beetles aside,  Garth has added and additional 10 species to the islands water beetle list including the fantastic rediscovery of the nine-lined diving beetle (Hygrotus novemlineatus).  Darren has found 8 species of dung beetle, including at least 2 others that don’t appear to have been found here.  Cranefly records for Tiree were somewhat lacking so Geoff has managed to fill in some of the blanks.

That’s all for now. Off to Coll tomorrow.

Malaise trap for catching flying insects, Tiree

The Northern Colletes bee mating

We had a great crossing from Oban to Tiree today, bright skies and 3 basking sharks spied just off the bow of the ferry. Arrived at lunchtime and eager not to waste any of the day, we turned our attention to some slightly smaller but equally beguiling animals. We got straight down to entomological buisiness. We have put up a malaise trap for flying insects and set some bottle traps for water beetles complete with tasty cat food bait. We have started to work some of the machair; this flower rich grassland lines the Hebridean coast.  This is the domain of the oil beetles and their bee hosts.  The Colletes floralis bees are very active at this time of year and can be seen in reasonable numbers in the grey dunes. We are yet to see any of the bees carrying the oil beetle larvae or any of the oil beetles themselves but it is early days and the challenge of the hunt is one of the major joys of fieldwork. We have certainly found plenty of other species of interest, Garth has already recorded about 27 species of water beetle.  I did generate some interest in my activities today when a passer by stumbled upon me attacking a rather sloppy cow pat with my pen knife looking for dung beetles, perhaps he was quietly disappointed that I had found it first!

Following a quick supper we headed back out to the sand dunes, keen not to waste the light and heat of the longest day of the year.  It was lovely watching the silvery shimmer off the palps of the male Dolichopodid flies in the evening sun on the coastal rocks.

The forecast isn’t so promising tomorrow but wish us luck.

Following a quite frenetic week at the museum preparing insect handling kits for our education team, picking  specimens with all their limbs for an up and coming community exhibition on metamorphosis and answering enquiries from ‘how best to mount hoverflies’  to ‘what is this insect that crawled into my ear canal and died when I was on holiday in France?’,  my out of office assistant now lets everyone know that I wont be back until next monday.

I have crammed my bags full of  entomological kit, including insect repellent for the irrepressible midges and sun  cream to contend with our freakishly good June weather and I am now up in Oban.  I am in good company; Darren Mann (Oxford University Museum of Natural History),  Geoff Hancock (Hunterian Museum, Glasgow) and Garth Foster (Water Beetle Conservation) are also here. We are heading out on the ferry tomorrow to the Inner Hebrides, to start a weeks fieldwork on the neighbouring islands of  Coll and Tiree. We will be doing some general insect collecting and recording but we also have a special mission to look out for the short-necked oil beetle – Meloe brevicollis. Oil beetles are enigmatic, voluptuous and fascinating beetles that are of high conservation concern.  The short-necked variety has been recently sighted on Coll and this sighting warrants further investigation. We will be meeting the locals and letting them know a bit more about these entomological treasures.

I am unsure what web access I will have this week so may have to relay shorter  messages to you through our admin department at the museum. There will be images and more beefy blogs whenever the technology allows. That’s all for now.  Good night.