Hemp-nettle weevil

A cool and rather blowy Bank Holiday in Eastern England, ideal for marking the Leeds University assignments and planting out more seedlings into the garden. I had to take it fairly easy, as I'd twisted my ankle in a rabbit-hole yesterday and it was still quite painful first thing this morning. Thankfully it's feeling much better this evening - just as well as I have a lot of fieldwork booked for the latter part of the week!

Late this afternoon I spent a while photographing a few of the more interesting insects that Pete's found over the last day or so. This tiny weevil (c. 3mm long) is called Datonychus angulosus, and it lives on Hemp-nettle in peatlands. It's very rare in Britain, occurring in less than twenty 10km squares, predominantly in the East Anglian fens and the Somerset levels, but also occurring in peatlands in the Humberhead Levels, Cheshire, west Wales and Hertfordshire. This is the first one that Pete's ever found, and was abundant on low-growing Hemp-nettle in a shaded alder woodland in Bedfordshire.

It's a bit of a shame that it's Monday, as it would have made a good entry for Tiny Tuesday - but that's life!