Mega - from the toilet seat!

About a week or so back, I was sitting on the loo watching a small Pholcus phalangioides hanging upside down in its web. Then I spotted movement below the web, in the crack where the skirting board meets the lino. From where I was perched, I couldn't quite make out what it was that I could see slowly moving back and forth. It looked kinda orange though. Anyway, I had no pot or tube on me, so I flushed the loo and forgot all about it. 

This happened several times during the course of the week. Today though, I had a glass tube to hand...

What the blinking flip is that then ???

With my naked eye I thought I'd found some sort of a large, furry booklouse, or maybe an indoor-loving springtail. Or was it a bug? I actually couldn't tell. Through a handlens I was somewhat surprised to see that it was a beetle! Freaky weird-looking thing, whatever it was. 

A short while later and I figured I had the Golden Spider Beetle Niptus hololeucus, something I'd never even heard of before. I couldn't find too much online about confusion species so shamelessly pinged the above image off to beetle guru Mark Telfer. A (very) short while later he came back with, Gripping!!!! Do not clean that toilet until I can get up to Skye next year! Unfortunately the whole house is being completely gutted and rebuilt this winter, and I won't be living in it any more, so I've popped it into a tube with some tissue paper and a slice of courgette (for moisture and nibbles) and I'll post it off to him when the post office opens. Mark won't tick it, but it'll be confirmed (or otherwise) before plugging a gap in his already immense collection of carded beetles. 

I find it quite hilarious that Mark, one of the most highly respected professional coleopterists in Britain, needs a beetle that I casually found whilst taking a dump.

In other news, there's an apple tree growing in my mate's garden just upslope of here. I noticed a few leafmines on it and brought them back to check. Bohemannia pulverosella, as expected. New to Skye, also as expected. This really is one crazy island! 

Leaf mine of Bohemannia pulverosella - new to Skye!