Hi, I'm Rudi, i'm 8 years old and my favourite book is 'Tarka the Otter' by Henry Williamson. Its about the life of an otter named Tarka and British Wildlife. One night i was reading the book with my dad and i said that i wanted to see all the animals in the book, he said i should do it and call it the Tarka Challenge. My Tarka Challenge started on 1st January 2012. The book contains 89 birds, 54 land based animals, 120 plants and 56 aquatic organisms.

The rules are simple, i must either see each thing myself or photograph it using my trail camera. I will try and see each thing on my local patch (Ogmore River Catchment) but may need to look somewhere else in Britain.

Lesser Stag Beetle

 
Whilst I was collecting the eggs from my chickens I noticed this small beetle lying dead on the floor, so I picked it up and brought it to my desk to see if I could identify it. I looked through my insect books and identified it as Dorcas parallelipipedus whose common name is the Lesser Stag Beetle. It is smaller and more common than the Stag Beetle. The adults can fly at night and feed on tree sap. It looks quite scary in the photograph  like something off Dr Who!
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  1. Alex Sidney27 August 2015 at 03:49

    Great picture! I found a lesser stag beetle about two years ago under a rotting log. The larvae can stay as larvae for years! Still looking for my first sighting of a real stag beetle, though!!

    Alex

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