Bronze ground beetle

Like everyone else, I'm getting a bit tired of the grey and gloomy weather, which is set to get increasingly cold. I took Rosie out along the river after breakfast, and again didn't bother taking a camera. Not carrying my camera bag does enable me to walk more briskly!! Fortunately there wasn't a lot to photograph, apart from a pair of swans re-building their nest. This pair have nested at the town end of the Electricity Cut for many years, and normally manage to raise a large brood of cygnets. Last year, the flooding meant that both breeding attempts were totally unsuccessful, a pattern that was repeated through much of the valley.

When I returned home, Pete went out for a cycle ride, to get some exercise. He stepped on a nail in town a couple of days ago, and the wound is still painful, meaning that he can't walk very far. He went to a pile of logs that he'd discovered a few days ago, in an undisturbed corner of the river valley. When he'd initially checked it out he'd found many hibernating ground beetles, which had found a relatively dry refuge above the flood level. Today he brought back specimens to identify - in total there were nineteen different species, including two which are considered to be nationally scarce.

This is the largest and most splendid of the species that he found, the bronze ground beetle Carabus granulatus. Like all ground beetles it is a mean predator of smaller invertebrates, and has large eyes to help it hunt at night. The elytra does indeed appear to have been cast from metal, and is worth viewing large. This is a fairly local species, particularly favouring large river valleys and flood plains. When I looked at the distribution map, it was easy to pick out the Rivers Severn, Thames, Nene and Great Ouse and the Humberhead Levels! It also seems to be pretty frequent in West Wales.

The afternoon was spent hosting a meeting of the South Lincolnshire Flora Group, and trying to identify survey priorities for the summer. I'd promised to bake cakes, a promise made before I embarked on my new eating regime. But I found a recipe for skinny lemon cupcakes, which proved to be delicious and certainly didn't sacrifice taste or texture. I was able to eat one and still stay well within my calorie limit!!