Bloody-nosed Beetle

I spent a few hours recording the plants in a tetrad quite close to the Leicestershire border - one I'd visited before early in the year, but which was much more rewarding in June, with records of narrow-leaved bird's-foot-trefoil, pepper-saxifrage, great burnet and eared willow, all of which are quite scarce in South Lincolnshire.

But probably my most interesting discovery was this bloody-nosed beetle Timarcha tenebricosa. This is a large flightless species of beetle which earns its common name from its peculiar form of defence; when threatened it exudes a drop of bright red fluid from the mouth (although I've never seen this happen - perhaps I'm not very threatening). It's reasonably well established in Leicestershire, but this is only the fiifth record in Lincolnshire - presumably it strolled across the border from a nearby airfield where a colony is present.