A large
Magdalis, appearing distinctly blue in certain lights/angles,
but retaining a bluish tint to the elytra in any light and an overall
very attractive species. This is a rare beetle nationally (often
regarded as a pest of commercial Pines) and recorded mostly from sites
in central/northern Scotland, but there are some unconfirmed records
from England listed on the NBN Atlas, but it has been recorded from
Cumbria (Dutton, A.).
This was an unexpected and exciting find in early April 2024
(Pendleton, T.A.), sat at the
top of a small Scot's Pine at Sherwood Pines, where there is presumed to
be a resident population. It was retained and later sent to Adrian
Dutton, the coleoptera recorder for VC56, for confirmation of the
initial ID and in view of the beetle's restricted UK range. It proved to
be new to
Nottinghamshire, but a quick follow-up record recently came from Clumber
Park (Brownley, N. and Brownley, S.)
later the same month. |
