What’s that bug in my potato?

We recently lifted our potatoes and were pleased to find that there were not too many holes this year. Those that we thought needed to be used quickly we brought home. I peeled and cut them up working around the annoying holes and then was shocked to see some little tiny beetles emerging that I had never seen before. We are used to finding woodlice or slugs, but these were new to us. Intruiged to find out what they were I searched the internet and noticed a government website called the Plant Health Portal that provided information about the Epitrix Potato flea beetles in a factsheet.  

Unfortunately the beetle I had seen was suspiciously similar enough to notify the relevant authorities. Luckily I still had a live specimen that I was able to capture and keep and it was collected by a plant health inspector the next day. I was told that if it was the notifiable Epitrix beetle it would be a disaster for British Potato producers with wide ramifications.

The beetle was sent away to a laboratory in Yorkshire to be identified and last week I received the good news that it was not the Epitrix beetle but in fact a Parabathyscia Wollastoni "which is a rarely recorded minute and eyeless species of Leiodid beetle. They are eyless because they are subterranean, feeding on decaying bulbs and root crops below the soil. They have been recorded under decaying rhubarb and lettuce and in rotten seed potatoes."

In case of interest there is more information about this little beetle to found on the Bugman Jones page.