Still ticking along


Boxing day. Full of comfort food and alcohol. Triumphant from success at family Yahtzee. Listening to one of my Christmas present CD's (B52s 'Wild Planet' - a bit of retro vinyl replacement) I took the 'Insects of the New Forest' from the book shelves and started to browse... and there it was.

I took the photograph above at Dungeness in July this year and hadn't got around to identifying it. It resides in a folder of 'mystery species' that I maintain and that I periodically try to solve. That New Forest book has solved it. If I'm not mistaken it's a Heath Assasin-bug (Coranus subapterus). Another one for the pan-species list...

That's the palm of my hand that the insect is residing upon. If you are a palmist and can tell me my fortune from the photograph above then please let me know whether or not:

I'll ever get to 4,000 species

Be able to confidently identify mosses and lichens

Take other birders seriously.

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas...

Comments

Andrew Cunningham said…
1 - Yes, 4000 species is easily reachable in good time.

2 - Yes, to a degree. Mosses are well covered in excellent literature. Lichens are harder for me but I aim to study Cladonias next year so maybe a case of a step at a time.

3 - No.

4 - Yes. I gather you did so too.

27 December 2012 at 12:49
Steve Gale said…
I bow to your palmistry skills Andrew. Have a good 2013.
27 December 2012 at 16:15
Rob said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
30 December 2012 at 17:03
Rob said…
It's a Coranus sp. but I don't know how to differentiate C. subapterus from the scarcer C. woodroffei.

There's a thread here:

http://www.insecte.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=41571&sid=5b62567b6a4e8aa9b052e06d8837f7dd

with French entomologists trying to separate the two and they're comparing features not visible in this photo.
30 December 2012 at 17:04
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