Allotments 4 All
General => News => Topic started by: Golach on October 05, 2013, 20:52:22
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I'm probably writing this in the wrong forum but here goes.
Been down the allotment for the best part of the day digging up as many weed roots as I can lay my hands on (love it when I get a big one).
Dug up a bug. Never seen one like this before.
It was about 1 1/2 inches long, just under 1/4 inch wide, shiny black but with muscle bands (if that makes sense) all the way down. Its belly was whitish grey and it had 4 legs to the front. When I first dug it up, I swear the thing panicked. It seemed to look up at me then did a dive that would shame a professional diver into the soil and was gone. I dug it up again about 30 mins later, this time picked it up in the palm of my hand to study it closer. That was fine until it looked like it was going to take a bite out of my hand so it got flung into the bushes.
Has anyone got any idea what it was and whether it was a goodie or a baddie please?
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You should be able to find it in the following link
http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk/beetles.html
XX Jeannine
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I suggest a mole cricket.
Though they actually have 6 legs, the front two look like pinchers. They eat roots so are baddies, except I think they are extremely rare near extinction. I think if you find one there is someone somewhere who desperately wants to know about it.
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I suggest a mole cricket.
Though they actually have 6 legs, the front two look like pinchers. They eat roots so are baddies, except I think they are extremely rare near extinction. I think if you find one there is someone somewhere who desperately wants to know about it.
So now your plot is a site of scientfic interest....
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2005/sept/news_6328.html
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I suggest a mole cricket.
Though they actually have 6 legs, the front two look like pinchers. They eat roots so are baddies, except I think they are extremely rare near extinction. I think if you find one there is someone somewhere who desperately wants to know about it.
another mole cricket
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. . . . It was about 1 1/2 inches long, just under 1/4 inch wide, shiny black but with muscle bands (if that makes sense) all the way down. Its belly was whitish grey and it had 4 legs to the front. When I first dug it up, I swear the thing panicked. It seemed to look up at me then did a dive that would shame a professional diver into the soil and was gone. . . .
Here's a mole cricket grub. However it doesn't quite fit the description you gave - do you recognie it? Extremely rare in the UK apparently. Hope it survived the crash landing in the bushes!!
(http://aeronvale-allotments.org.uk/pics/mole_cricket_grub.jpg)
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Definitely not a mole cricket or grub.
To try and describe the wee beastie more, it was shaped like a woodlouse except a lot bigger and only the 4 legs to the front. Shame I didn't have my mobile phone on me at the time or I would have photographed it. Best I might be able to do would be to draw it actual size and scan it.
Never seen anything like it before and so far, haven't dug up another one.
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Did you look at the pictures in that link I posted XX Jeannine
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you don't live near Sellafield, by any chance?
or, have you seen the film "Tremors"?
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Did you look at the pictures in that link I posted XX Jeannine
Very interesting site and a lot of bugs I wasn't familiar with...but...no sign of "my" bug.
One thing I do know, and it may or may not be relevant, where I found the bug was where the previous tenants of my allotment had potatoes planted because I've dug up quite a few very small potatoes, some eaten by something, others in one piece.
One of the allotment holders told me that the previous tenants left about 4 years ago and all they planted were potatoes in approx 1/4 of the allotment. They only turned over the earth and when the weeds overtook the potatoes, gave up and never came back.
I shall keep on searching the internet for my bug (or hopefully dig him up again). If I find him or another one, I'll make sure to get a pic of it.
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What about this one
http://www.wsbrc.org.uk/mI5TDHfcvUa_ZuU9VnbQSQ%3D%3D/Species.aspx
I am rather confused about the four legs, perhaps a baby pipistrelle bat maybe its mother dropped it.
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What about this one
http://www.wsbrc.org.uk/mI5TDHfcvUa_ZuU9VnbQSQ%3D%3D/Species.aspx
I am rather confused about the four legs, perhaps a baby pipistrelle bat maybe its mother dropped it.
No. Not that either. Whatever it is, it isn't a beetle and definitely not a baby bat. Closest in shape I can think of is a woodlouse but about 50 times bigger. It had a head but no discernible neck and what appeared to be two very short antennae, more like little stubs slightly bigger than a full-stop. The legs surprised me to because when I first saw it it dived back into the soil very quickly. Wasn't until I dug it up again and put it on the palm of my hand (it landed on it's back - the belly was greyish white) and that's when I saw the legs. It righted itself very quickly. Definitely has 4 legs at the front of it's body
Whatever it is, it's got me intrigued. I've asked my brother who's a time-served gardener and even he hasn't a clue.
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I have had another thought what about a newt. The baby ones are very small at the moment. No antenae
There are huge woodlouse called sea slaters which live on seaweed but they have 6 legs. I thought you were in Swindon, the tide went out many millennium ago. I remember going to the youth hostel in Boscastle and they were in the ladies showers. Your should have heard the screams.
Maybe some kind of cockroach. People are coming to Swindon from around the world and bringing their pests with them. But some people keep them as pets. Have a look at the hissing cockroach.
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/1176591.print/
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I have had another thought what about a newt. The baby ones are very small at the moment. No antenae
There are huge woodlouse called sea slaters which live on seaweed but they have 6 legs. I thought you were in Swindon, the tide went out many millennium ago. I remember going to the youth hostel in Boscastle and they were in the ladies showers. Your should have heard the screams.
Maybe some kind of cockroach. People are coming to Swindon from around the world and bringing their pests with them. But some people keep them as pets. Have a look at the hissing cockroach.
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/1176591.print/
Familiar with hissing cockroaches as someone I knew kept them. On the cockroach theory, that might be nearer the mark, that it could be some type of cockroach but not the type we're familiar with.
Must look up sea slaters. Where I come from originally, Aberdeen, we call woodlice Slaters.