Metatropis rufescens New to Cheshire

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Lupercal
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Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:58 am

Metatropis rufescens New to Cheshire

Post by Lupercal »

Metatropis rufescens New to Cheshire:

On 31 August 2012 while sweeping for flies alongside Pettypool Brook, Whitegate (SJ625694) I found an unfamiliar delicate bug which I retained for identification. It turned out to be a member of the small family Berytinidae - Metatropis rufescens(H.-S.) This appears to be a first record for Cheshire - it certainly doesn't appear in the most recently published county list by Steve Judd. Southwood and Leston (1959) state that this essentially southern species ranging north to Befordshire had recently (then) been found in Staffordshire and that there were no Welsh records. Its host plant is Common Enchanter's Nightshade of which there were certainly a few small patches in the vicinity, though I cannot recall with certainty if that is what I swept it from.

It is a very distinctive little beast with a long thin and waisted body. The most striking features are the legs and antennae (also long) which are white speckled all over with black and with black "clubs" to the femora and antennal joints. The keys generally describe it as pale brown in general body colour; my specimen looked decidedly greenish in life, due apparently to the chlorophyll-rich body contents showing through the rather translucent chitinous structure. After death it rapdily faded to a l=pale brown colour. One further point of colour difference from the description in Douglas & Scott (1865) is in the colour of the eyes: these authors say the ocelli are pink and the compound eyes are black. In my specimen bot the eyes and ocelli are a strong pink, a colour that persists after death.

Bill Hardwick

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