a bee-like beetle
on 5th August 2009
This chafer beetle could be one of two very similar species. Photographed by Tobias Parke
Other observations of Trichius rosaceus
Comments
We have T. fasciatus commonly
We have T. fasciatus commonly in up here, but it has a very odd distribution in UK - Highland Scotland and Wales (see http://data.nbn.org.uk/gridMap/gridMap.jsp?allDs=1&srchSpKey=NBNSYS00000...).
The location makes it very unlikely to be fasciatus, but there is an odd dot in E Anglia from 1955. NBN Gateway has no knowledge of T. rosaceus. Can anyone advise on the occurrence of rosaceus in UK?
Murdo
TRY
recording wildlife with The Recorder's Year on www.hbrg.org.uk.
T. rosaceus is on the British
T. rosaceus is on the British list (it has two synonyms: zonatus and abdominalis)
Is rosaceus native or
Is rosaceus native or adventive? Where and when has it been recorded?
The two well separated spots on the front of the thorax in this picture, and the brown rather than white hairs behind the elytra point to rosaceus from what I can establish.
It would be interesting to see a specimen of that eastern 'fasciatus' on NBNG, so far out of range ...
M.
TRY
recording wildlife with The Recorder's Year on www.hbrg.org.uk.
As far as I can find out it's
As far as I can find out it's a vagrant.
Thanks for that - I thought I
Thanks for that - I thought I might have missed something important!
M.
TRY
recording wildlife with The Recorder's Year on www.hbrg.org.uk.
T. rosaceus
The Royal Entomological Society key to this group of beetles includes Trichius rosaceus (under the name Trichius zonatus) and says "doubtfully British; known from old records, also one specimen caught in 1959 in Marlow (Bucks) and specimens from Sheppey (Kent) and Tilbury (Essex) caught in 1946".
The key separates the two species by whether or not there is a strong (fasciatus) or weak (rosaceus) tooth on the outer side of the middle tibia. I can't make out a tooth on the middle tibia in the above pictures, but it's difficult to see for sure; based on the elytral (wing-case) markings I'd agree with Murdo that T. rosaceus looks much more likely.
There are some excellent photos of these two species on the German Coleoptera website:
http://www.koleopterologie.de/gallery/index.html
You have to know your beetle families to navigate easily round the site, and to find Trichius you need to go to the Scarabaeoidea and look for family Scarabaeidae, subfamily Trichinae. For instance compare this of T. rosaceus (under the name zonatus):
http://www.koleopterologie.de/gallery/fhl08s/trichius-zonatus2-foto-leo.jpg
with this of T. fasciatus (showing the tooth on the mid tibia):
http://www.koleopterologie.de/gallery/fhl08s/trichius-fasciatus3-foto-fu...
If this really is Trichius rosaceus it is a notable observation, and worth reporting to the recording scheme for this group of beetles. There are a few mentions of more recent British records on the web, some of which are not well-documented but there is one for Hackney Marshes in 2004 that seems to be genuine, and as several were seen on that occasion the authors speculate that it may have established itself in Britain, at least temporarily.
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Open University - Biodiversity Observatory
It seems likely that this was
It seems likely that this was T. rosaceus, although it may be impossible to know for sure without a specimen. I've passed these photos on to the County recorder for Norfolk, who in turn has forwarded them to the NHM. I'll let you know what comes of this (either way will be a first for Norfolk, I believe)!
Rob Coleman
National Recording Scheme
I sent the link for this iSpot observation to Darren Mann at Oxford University, who runs the national recording scheme for this group of beetles, and he says:
"It does look like rosaceus. This species may be 'turning up more' or people are just noticing it more, with the increase in nursery plant traffic, it's possibly just being imported more, and with digital photography ... more specimens are coming under the radar than before. Its hard to disentangle actual increase over recorder effort sometimes."
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Open University - Biodiversity Observatory
wow!
What a fantastic beetle!
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Open University - Biodiversity Observatory