Insect Portraits – a Carrion Beetle
December 4th 2019
Insect Portraits – a Carrion Beetle
This handsome carrion beetle, over 10mm long, was found by Gwen Richards on dog dung in her garden at Torbreck (NC0824) on 20th August 2019 (and photographed on a more salubrious background).
It belongs to the family Silphidae, the carrion, burying or sexton beetles, and is an example of the species Thanatophilus rugosus, for which there are no previous records from the north-west of Scotland, according to the NBN Atlas.
Other members of the family, the black, or black and orange, members of the genus Nicrophorus, are more familiar sights, on the corpses of birds or mammals, which they do indeed bury to provide food for their larvae. Thanatophilus rugosus is not a dung feeder as such; the attraction will have been the larvae of flies or other beetles which, thankfully, help to dispose of dung.
Ian M. Evans
Recent Sightings
Greylag Goose
Eleven birds feeding on margins of frozen Loch an Aigeil (AS) (22/01)
Common Gull
Flock of 29 feeding on Stoer Green (AS) (21/01)
Goldfinch
c20 birds on garden trees, Drumbeg (Nancy Millar) (17/01)
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Two separate reports of birds using peanut and fat ball feeders in gardens at almost opposite ends of Assynt.
Single bird on peanut feeder, Elphin (Rosie Christmas)
Single bird on fat ball feeder, Culkein Drumbeg (Carol Langford) (17/01)
Twite
26 birds at Split Rock, Clachtoll (AS) (16/01)
Fieldfare
Small flock of 20 at Clachtoll (AS) (16/01)
Goldcrest
Single bird foraging under garden feeders, Torbreck (Jack Wright) (14/01)
Dipper
Three birds on River Inver opposite Little Assynt Tree Nursery (DAH). At least one of these birds was singing. (12/01)
