Trox scaber

While working through my Curculionidae specimens and photos in early 2026 I came across an old folder of "unidentified weevils". Among them were these three photos of a beetle that had come to light in my garden in 2015, a year or two before I began to make any remotely serious attempt to identify beetles. Back then I would have been completely unaware of the existence of hide beetles (family Trogidae) and would have only had a slight familiarity with weevils - indeed even now with a decade of looking at beetles, although I am familiar enough with weevils to immediately realise this wasn't one, I was still only vaguely aware of Trogidae and no more experienced with that family.

It is a matter of some regret that I didn't either retain the specimen or secure better quality photos, but I suppose with my interest in beetles not having taken off by then, it's no real surprise that I didn't. The question is, can it be identified from these photos? There are three British species in the family Trogidae of which two have been recorded in Norfolk (and the third is probably extinct). Both are scarcely recorded - the commoner one (Trox scaber) had only 12 records to then end of 2024. Some of the characters used in the keys aren't visible at all in my photos (e.g. antennal characteristics) while others are theoretically visible but hard to discern due to the poor quality of my images. I think the smoothness of the pronotum and the elytral characteristics probably point to scaber, and the overall appearance seems to be a better match for that when comparing it to online photos of both species. Photos of sabulosus taken from above seem to consistently show broader and more rounded elytra compared to the slightly narrower and more parallel sides like mine. That's not mentioned in the keys so I'm not sure if it's diagnostic, but although the evidence is limited, what evidence there is seems to all point to it being scaber.

Trox scaber, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 1st July 2015

I very much hope to get a second chance to document this unusual species more thoroughly.