Walking across car-park at Northward Hill yesterday I was looking on the ground in front of me. I find over the last couple of years I'm more and more fascinated by, as Sir David coined, 'Life in the Undergrowth', I spied a tiny insect hurrying across the dusty pebble strewn area. I bent down to take a closer look and noticed its' vivid red and black colouration immediately. My initial thought was some sort of ant, but it seemed too elongated, my next thought was a tiny beetle.
Fortunately I had the Macro lens already set up on the camera and managed to fire a dozen shots before it disappeared into the undergrowth.
Back home looking at the image I decided beetle, then Rove Beetle after that it didn't take too long with the aid of my 'Brocks' to tie it down to Paederus fuscipes (Nationally Scarce) or P. littorallis.
A posting on Beetles of Britain and Ireland, Facebook page confirmed it as P. littoralis.
A highly toxic little bundle if it comes into contact with human skin, I suppose the distictive red and black colouration is a bit of a clue.
The North Kent Marshes are a very special area and worth preserving at all cost.