A Second Click Beetle Needing an Identification

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wirralbirder
Posts: 323
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 am

A Second Click Beetle Needing an Identification

Post by wirralbirder »

A Second Click Beetle Needing an Identification:

Hi All,

This click beetle seen at Burton Mere Wetlands on May 26th 2014. Anyone any idea of its identity. I think that I was way off with A.haemorrhoidalis for the previous one.

Cheers,
Harry

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DonSten
Posts: 84
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 am

Re: A second Click Beetle needing an identification

Post by DonSten »

Good morning Harry,

This is one of two species, Melanotus castanipes (Paykull) and Melanotus villosus (Gf in Fc) the separation of which Howard Mendel, the click beetle man, describes as 'at best difficult'.

I think this is probably M.castanipes based on the shape of the pronotum although the image isn't really clear enough to see the side of the pronotum, properly. It's the commoner species of the two, but until recently both species were just recorded as M.villosus , as M.castanipes hadn't been recognised as a separate species.

Both species develop in woodland and you can find the stiff (hence the name wireworms) shiny, yellowish larvae in rotten logs.

As I validate Coleoptera records, I'd be happy to accept Melanotus castanipes via RODIS, but I have just checked using the Data Search facility and although M.castanipes is recognised as a species, a search result only brings up M.villosus, even for recent records from Norton Priory etc., suggesting they have been misidentified, and bypassed me.

You could also have entered it as Melanotus villosus sensu lato or M. villosus agg, but I don't think either is possible.

Cheers,
Don

wirralbirder
Posts: 323
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 am

Re: A Second Click Beetle Needing an Identification

Post by wirralbirder »

Hi Don,

Before submitting the request for an I.D. I looked on 'The Elateridae of the British Isles' site. Very good it was too. I had settled on M.villosus but was afraid to declare this as half the 70+ species had no image attached.

Thanks for your time and effort in replying to my emails.

I gather from what you write that I wouldn't be able to send the record into RODIS ??

Cheers,
Harry

DonSten
Posts: 84
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 am

Re: A Second Click Beetle Needing an Identification

Post by DonSten »

Hello Harry,

I went through the process of entering a record for M.castanipes yesterday and could select the species, although I didn't actually add a record. It seems that it should appear in the 'to be verified' list as M.castanipes, but as I said, when I looked for M.castanipes in a species search, instead of getting 'no records', I got M.villosus records.

Cheers,
Don

SteveMcBill
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Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
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Re: A Second Click Beetle Needing an Identification

Post by SteveMcBill »

Don,

Unsure exactly how you undertook the species search for Melanotus castanipes but I have just done one on the rECOrd website and it came back with the following message:

There were 0 Records found for Melanotus castanipes (Melanotus castanipes) Between the Years 1500 and 2014

Don't know if that helps at all - I hope so.

Cheers,
Steve

DonSten
Posts: 84
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 am

Re: A Second Click Beetle Needing an Identification

Post by DonSten »

Hello Steve,

Must admit - I have just done the same thing with the same result, so I don't know what happened previously.
It's more than a day ago so I can't reconstruct it.

Thanks for alerting me to this.

Cheers,
Don

SteveMcBill
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Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:15 am
Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
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Re: A Second Click Beetle Needing an Identification

Post by SteveMcBill »

You're more than welcome Don - just hope it was of some small help in some way.

Cheers,
Steve

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