The wonderful thing about our wildlife is just how marvellously diverse it is. Even now, after studying the wildlife of the Wyre Forest district for some 13 years, there are still creatures and plants out there that are new to me.

Last weekend, I was working with the Young Rangers club on the first bug hunt of the year. This is always good as their keenness to ferret out unusual invertebrates always results in interesting finds.

This time was no exception and to my great joy they found a Minator beetle wandering around the acid grassland. This extremely rare beetle has three horns on its armoured back and spends its days clearing up rabbit droppings.

This find inspired me to keep up the search for some more interesting bugs while I was leading a mini adventure for a group at Hurcott Pools and Wood nature reserve that afternoon.

Bug hunting at Hurcott is much more difficult than at Habberley as Hurcott's drier woodland areas are either more conifer based and support a lower diversity of insects or, in the case of the more deciduous areas, the ground layer is covered in bluebells and brambles. On the other hand, the wet woodland is a superb habitat.

However, access into this woodland is a problem for two reasons. Firstly, the ground is soft and sinking into deep mud is a real possibility, secondly excursions into this wood should not be undertaken at this time of year for ecological reasons. The dense tangle of vegetation in the wet wood provides habitat for readily disturbed ground nesting birds so I limited myself to carrying out a search of the mudflats.

This is always a good spot to search in order to get an insight into what's going on in the wet wood, as the soft muddy banks are great for finding footprints and tracks. This time however, only duck prints were to be seen.

Running across the mud at breakneck speed though, was a predatory beetle.

After a bit of scrambling around, I managed to persuade the beetle to run into the palm of my hand. It was definitely a member of the Carabidae family, but with its large pronounced eyes and oversized, needle-sharp jaws, it closely resembled a tiger beetle.

Apart from the jaws, its most noticeable feature was its armoured wing cases, which were covered in what appeared to be small holes. On closer inspection though they turned out to be mirror-like scales. Confident of being able to at least get close to identifying this beetle, I let it go.

To properly identify beetles, it is often necessary to examine them closely with a microscope. The distinctiveness of this creature meant that I felt I would at least get close enough to satisfy my curiosity.

A short while later, having looked through a few reference books, I determined that this was a Carabidia species called Elaphrus, which specialises in hunting on soft mud during daylight hours.