How to identify small beetles

[88V8]

Over the past week our ancient cottage has sprouted a crop of small beetles. Hundreds.
About an eighth long, black or grey. No markings I can see.
In shape, I would say like the Cerylonidae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerylonidae or indeed like a slightly elongated ladybird.

At first we thought they were coming in through the kitchen window, but we now think they are home-grown.

I feared they might be woodworm, happily it's the wrong time of year.

They're not overtly harmful, although they fall into the salad, and the bread mix and the cat's food. I'm more concerned about what the larvae have been eating and whether they will start a new crop.

There are apparently some 4,000 beetles in the UK, this site is useful https://www.ukbeetles.co.uk/family-guide for whiling away an hour or two.
Does anyone know where I can send some to get them identified?

V8

[servodude]

Does anyone know where I can send some to get them identified?

Traditionally the local natural history museums are good for this.
If it's novel enough for you to notice they get quite interested in where it happened etc.

[Hallucigenia]

Does anyone know where I can send some to get them identified?

Traditionally the local natural history museums are good for this.
If it's novel enough for you to notice they get quite interested in where it happened etc.

Unlikely to be rare if there's hundreds. Always hard without a picture, but pollen beetles Meligethes sp. are the first thing that come to mind.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/pollen-beetles

I imagine there's an app for that - certainly the apps for identifying plants seem to work quite well.

[DeepSporran]

You could try the Royal Entomological Society

https://www.royensoc.co.uk/understanding-insects/identification-help

It seems they are keen to help anyone identify a bug.

Good luck !

[Redmires]

Try Google lens. I've had good results with it for flowers and plants.

[gryffron]

Google reverse image search is an amazing resource. Have you tried dropping a picture into that.

https://images.google.com/ and click on "Search by image"

[edit]Probably the same tool as the previous poster mentioned. Just a different way to access it[/edit]

Gryff

[tsr2]

Try Google lens. I've had good results with it for flowers and plants.

I've had good results for plants, but with insects it's best match for a stonefly was mosquito

[88V8]

So, as suggested I sent a letter to the Royal Entomological Society....

Having failed to photograph these dot-sized beetles, I thought I had better send you some, even though they will be doa.
I hope you can kindly identify them for me.

They began to appear in our 400 year-old cottage about a month ago. They flocked in their hundreds to the windows, and fell into things. Their numbers have now dwindled to a daily few.
We have not found where they originate, but the interior is quite dark and there are many beams and nooks and crannies.

Although they do not appear to my ignorant eye to resemble wood-worm beetle, and their flight time seems to be wrong, I cannot help associating them with an attack of what I assumed were ants in a care-worn elm lintel that supports a few tons of 18” stone wall.

This first occurred in the spring of 2021, and I dealt with them, as I thought, with ant bait and the injection of much woodworm fluid. This spring however, the ‘ants’ returned in greater force or at any rate with a good deal more frass, and I responded as before and after a week or so the frass ceased. The frass by the way, is quite coarse, not like the classic woodworm.
Whatever, I thought I had defeated them, but now we have the beetles….

I hope you can tell me that they are something faintly exotic but benign.
In any event, I am enclosing a cheque to defray your costs, or perhaps for your wine, women and song fund.

And today the reply...

'Your package reached me on Saturday when I returned from holiday. The insects are ash bark beetles, Hylesinus varius, and as you are finding the beetles indoors, I suspect that you are storing ash logs near an open fire place and the adults will be emerging from the logs. The beetle larvae live and pupate under the bark so moving the logs outside will cure the problem.

The beetles only live in ash and are not household pests. Their presence is unrelated to the ants.

Thank you very much for the donation.'

He is correct. We have two inglenook fireplace-fulls of logs, some of which I suppose are ash.

Not woodworm.... phew.

V8

[GrahamPlatt]

iNaturalist or “Seek” apps for your tablet/smartphone. Pretty good, usually. Depending on your skill with the camera.