Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from "Miss Perspicacia Tick" contains these words:

According to my book (/The Illustrated Book of Insects/ by John
Burton) the Rose Chafer is a little on the large side as it's nearly
1" (25mm) long.

IME they are a bit smaller than that - between say, 15mm - 20mm, and
not very common overall.

I only have the one source - I'll have to take some of my grandfather's
entymology books the next time I'm over there - he's always trying to
offload his library on to family members as he has *far* too many (he
reckons that, if you were to include all the ones in the attic - and the
attic is vast - you could house a family of five up there quite
comfortably - he must have pushing 100,000 volumes (he's on his own in a
6-bedroom, six reception room property - and the rooms have been gradually
filling up since my grandmother died - though he always was a hoarder)



One question to ask: - did it have a discernable thorax (ladybirds
don't)?

And another, was the wing-case 'waisted'?

Sort of what I meant, I just didn't express it very well.


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A similar scarab is Gnorimus nobilis, and that's a bit smaller.

To be entymologically correct, beetles aren't bugs; bugs are a
distinct order with piercing mouthparts (the term really shouldn't
be used to mean 'insects').

Jewel bugs really /are/ bugs (genus of shieldbug) so, no, you
wouldn't. Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong, there are no
species of jewel bug native to the UK. When I googled for 'jewel
bug' about 85% of the hits were for Australian and New Zealand
sites, so I would hazard a guess that the antipodes are where they
are most prevalent.

I've never head of a 'jewel bug'.

Then I've taught *you* something. I did know of the existence of "jewel
bugs" (so called because they are iridescent and come in various "jewel"
colours - ruby, emerald, sapphire and amethyst) but I had to Google to
learn more; as I stated they seem to be mainly antipodean. One of the
commonest (known to exist in at least half of Australia) is Calliphara
imperialis, but there are other species: - Agnonosoma trilineatum (which is
deemed to be a pest in Aus).

They seem to have been introduced (or at least one species) from South
America (Venezuela) to control something known as the 'Bellyache Bush'
(Jatropha gossypifolia) (which, ironically, was introduced to get rid of
another botanical menace, the rubber vine weed.) /Jatropha/ is so named
because it poisons livestock that eat it (a bit like what ragwort does to
horses - but affecting all ruminants as well) by giving them an extremely
bad stomach ache or, if they are particularly susceptible, or have ingested
enough, killing them slowly and very painfully. Therefore, that species of
jewel bug is to /jatropha/ what the Burnett and Cinnabar moths are to
ragwort.

A photo of /jatropha/ can be found here
(http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/39830/). Apparently, it's a member of
the euphorbia family (something else I did not know). I have to say it does
have very attractive ruby-red flowers and maroon (almost chocolate) leaves
(suppose they could be called 'bronze'.)

/Jatropha/ is single-rootedly (or many-rootedly) responsible for Australia's
agricultural crisis. It cannot be removed (burn it and it appears to
multiply - dig it up and there's always a bit of root left) so they're
pinning their hopes on the jewel bug.

(learnt the above from an Aussie MSN contact).




There are several species of ground beetle (so called because they
are poor fliers) which might fit the bill but, unfortunately, none
have common names (at least according to the book I'm consulting).

Sorry, that's the best I can do. You could try posting to
uk.rec.natural-history see if you have better luck there.

I'd hazard a guess at Phyllobius argentatus - that fits the bill
fairly well. Other possibilities are Spanish fly (yes, that one!)

Technically, /Phyllobius/ is a weevil and I've never been sure if weevils
were still coleoptera (though I suppose they must be) (for the attention of
the OP, an image can be found here http://tinyurl.com/9xml4). If it is
/argentatus/ this could point to him (the OP) being in the north somewhere
as all references (true, Google shouldn't be taken as absolute gospel, but
it does give a fair indication - all sites that referenced it were Cheshire
and northwards).

An excellent PDF with images, and information, may be found here
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/pdf.nsf/pdf/pests__diseases.pdf/$FILE/pests__diseases.pdf.

Thanks again, Rusty...

Sarah
--
In memory of MS MVP Alex Nichol: http://www.dts-l.org/