Following an article about this beetle in the YNU August edition of 'The Naturalist', there was also mention of the Small Bloody-Nosed beetle, T. goettingensis.
So I took another look at my photo and realised I had mis-identified and it is actually the Small BNB T. goettingensis.
I have had this confirmed by the Beetle recorder who said; "There is a record from Hebden Bridge, presumably the Craggs, dated 1879".
I had no idea there were 2 such beetles to choose from but fascinated to learn this Small BNB has remained at Blake Dean for the last 137 years without showing itself to passers by!
BNB's wing cases are fused, so they have to walk everywhere and are consequently sedentary. They produce noxious blood droplets when threatened. Food plant is bedstraw and cleavers.
It's amazing when you refind something in the very old records. Well done Philip.
ReplyDeleteI read that article as well; about the Small Bloody-nosed Beetle colonising very slowly along the hedgerows at a nature reserve in east Yorkshire.
Nice to hear of someone else in Calderdale is reading the YNU Bulletin; we receive it at the HSS as we are an affiliated society.
Was the recorder you contacted called Mike?
Hi Steve, yes the recorder was Michael Denton. I don't normally read the YNU bulletin as I'm not a member but I was lent a copy as there is an article about early years of natural history in Hebden Bridge.
ReplyDeleteIt was then I saw the article about the Large Bloody-Nosed Beetle that you mention.
Mike Denton used to come to the HSS, and recorded beetles in Calderdale until he got the job in York.
ReplyDeleteI must write the history of the HSS, but the thought is daunting. We seem to have the minutes of the meetings going back to the beginning in 1874.
That history sounds a lot of work Steve but would be interesting to read.
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