| Chrysolina | ||
| Leaf Beetles in Nottinghamshire | ||
| Chrysolina leaf
beetles (Chrysomelidae) are fairly conspicuous by nature and
colouration. There are a total of 18 Chrysolina species
in the UK, nearly half of which are classed as RDB or
Nationally notable species. As their name implies, they are all leaf feeding species and often readily found by carefully searching low foliage. As with finding many leaf beetles, any success depends on searching the correct plants and/or in the correct habitat. Sweeping is probably the most efficient method, but careful examination of foliage can be equally successful, if not more time consuming. The eggs are usually laid singly or in small groups on the host plant and the developing larvae are rather grub-like. Pupation takes place either on the host plant or at ground level. |
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Over-wintering is mostly
as adults and we have found several examples of Chrysolina
polita spending the Winter underneath loose bark of
felled Willow logs (shown left) often in company with
other beetles such as Pterostichus niger, Pterostichus
nigrita (Carabidae) and Silpha atrata (Silphidae)
The only other Chrysolina we have ever recorded during the Winter months, was an adult Chrysolina oricalcia, strangely found wandering in Sherwood Forest on a mild night at the end of November 2008. |
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| Known
UK Chrysolina
species and their current status The following list of species, are currently on the UK coleoptera list. Chrysolina americana, C. banksi, C. brunsvicensis, C. caerulans, C. cerealis, C. fastuosa, C. graminis, C. haemoptera, C. herbacea, C. hyperici, C. intermedia, C. marginata, C. oricalcia, C. polita, C. sanguinolenta, C. staphylaea, C. varians, C. violacea. The rarer Chrysolina are shown with their currently assigned designations in the table below. |
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| Chrysolina beetles
in Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire's Chrysolina list totals seven species, which include - C. americana, C. brunsvicensis, C. fastuosa, C. hyperici, C. oricalcia, C. polita, C. staphylaea and C. violacea. All of these, with the exception of the recent addition of C. americana, were listed by Carr in The Invertebrate Fauna of Nottinghamshire (1916) |
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| By the end of 2009, we had managed to locate and photograph four of the seven Chrysolina species which occur in Nottinghamshire. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chrysolina americana  |
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| This is a stunning and beautiful beetle, showing a rainbow like colouration when viewed closely. Chrysolina americana is another invertebrate that has appeared in the UK only relatively recently. Despite its Latin name, this beetle does not originate from America, but was originally a southern European species. It first appeared in the UK in the 1990's and has steadily spread north since. Nottinghamshire's first records seem to have occurred in 2009 from sites in Nottingham and Newark. This was a beetle we had looked for during the last couple of years and our first record came when six adults were found in the courtyard of the old Edwinstowe Craft Centre, now home to the Sherwood Forest Trust on 01/06/11. The adults are around 8-9mm and can potentially be found on Rosemary, Lavender and other herbs. | ||
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| Chrysolina
fastuosa |
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| Chrysolina fastuosa is a stunning beetle and a species which, despite some people telling us it's common, it certainly does'nt seem to be. Despite knowing of one site at Shelford in the Trent Valley where it can be found on White Dead-nettle (Lamium album) we searched everywhere we went for nearly two years, before finding numerous adults on Common Hemp Nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit) growing by the River Meden in early July 2011. | ||
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| Chrysolina hyperici |
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| A common UK species, Chrysolina hyperici is a beautifully coloured metallic beetle. The adults can be found wherever St John's Wort grows, eating the flowers and resting amongst the flower heads during the day. We found several of these in a sheltered part of Warsop Main Pit Top, at Clipstone Old Quarter and at Budby South Forest. Length around 7mm. Historically, this beetle has been recorded from South Leverton (Thornley) Barrow Hills, Everton (Chamberlin 1905) and Cuckney Hay Wood in 1914. | ||
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| Chrysolina
oricalcia |
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| Chrysolina oricalcia seems to be a common species where it occurs, but we have only found it occasionally on Cow Parsley in a few areas of Sherwood Forest CP and nearby at Clipstone Old Quarter. Despite being around 9mm in length, this is an easy species to spot on the stems of Cow Parsley. It seems that C. oricalcia over-winters (probably underneath loose bark or in leaf litter) as we found an adult climbing the trunk of an Oak, during a moth-trapping session at Sherwood Forest CP on November 28th 2008. | ||
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| Chrysolina
polita |
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| A fairly common species, Chrysolina polita is found fairly regularly in the Eakring area on low-growing vegetation. About 9mm in length, it's bright colouration makes it quite conspicuous. Over-wintering adults have been found several times under the loose bark of felled Willow logs at Eakring Meadows NR. Uncommon at Sherwood Forest and only recently discovered there for the first time in 2009. C. polita seems to have been quite widely recorded historically in Nottinghamshire, with J.W. Carr quoting records from some 15 sites, ranging from Misson in the very north of the county, through to Cotgrave south of Nottingham. | ||
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| Chrysolina staphylaea |
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| Chrysolina staphylaea is sometimes more commonly known as the Brown Willow Beetle. This seems a fairly large Chrysolina species, with the one pictured measuring 9.5mm. Our only record is from Sherwood Forest CP in early June 2009. Historical records of C. staphylaea have come from Retford district (Thornley and Pegler) South Leverton, Barrow Hills at Everton, Nottingham district (Ryles and Dodd) and Tollerton (Robinson 1914) | ||
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