Ground Beetles -Agonum dorsale

The new polytunnel is up! Relief, now I can start sowing. It wasn't the erection that was causing a delay. I have some very heavy shelves that needed to be moved. Unfortunately I'm becoming a weakling. Thanks, Jim! I couldn't have done it on my own.

As I was moving around slab stones, these little ground beetles, and a friend I'll blip tomorrow, were scurrying around. I've had a busy house all day so put them safely to photograph this evening.

With over 4,000 species of beetle in the UK, of which around 300 are ground beetles, an ID is not always easy but these little ones are fairly distinctive. I believe they are predatory Carabid Beetles, Agonum dorsale. Feeding mostly on cereal aphids they are recognised as a biological control agent for arable crops.

A journalist from the Surrey Advertiser knocked at the door this afternoon. He was hoping for more information, and my photographs, of the incident on Monday. It appears that it may have been a suicide attempt. The man worked with swimming pools and the chemicals involved are normally used together, in very small quantities, to keep the water clean. Hydrochloride acid and chlorine. The journalist believes he may not have survived but they are still trying to piece together the facts.