Xylocleptes bispinus - read more...
County Recorder Graham Finch writes:
Xylocleptes bispinus Duftschmid 1825 was found by Mark Skevington on 24th February 2021 by collecting a few small stems of Clematis Clematis vitalba from a hedgerow in Whetstone. There is a single historic record for this species by the Rev. M. Mathews sometime between 1855–1889. As there has always been some confusion as to which of Mathews specimens were actually found in Leicestershire, Derek Lott was always hesitant at including them to the VC55 database. With that in mind, I think it is only fair that this latest record should be acknowledged as the first VC55 record. Mark broke off a few short pieces of stem, brough them home and started to split them, out dropped several X. bispinus as easy as that! In fact, in a stem about 12 inches long, he ended up with about 10 specimens. I have had a good search around Ibstock for Clematis and found none, yet, but I’m sure some of you will have better luck than me, and some may even have it growing in the garden, and as this species is said to be found in cultivated garden varieties of Clematis, then any stems or thin branches have got to be worth a good scrutiny. The beetles are small, 1.8-3.2mm, the males seem to be a little brighter than the females, and display fairly large horns or teeth on the apex of the elytra, the females are duller lacking the horns. Now is a good time to look out for this species before spring leaf growth hinders the chance of finding the small holes in the stems. However, apparently, they can still be detected in late spring, by the yellow dust falling from the burrows and settling on the fresh green leaves. The habits of this species make it an excellent target species, we need to know just how widespread it really is, or is it still quite restricted. Stems up to about the diameter of a pencil seem to be favoured. There is another species that is associated with X. bispinus - Leptophloeus clematidis Erichson 1846 - this species has been observed feeding on the eggs and larvae of X. bispinus, but is quite a rare species and up to now recorded mainly from southern and eastern England, with Cambridgeshire the closest record to us, that shouldn’t stop us looking though! If anyone is lucky enough to find any suspects, please feel free to contact me if you think they need a closer inspection.
Photo: Graham Finch
