....not Alexander, but Malachius aeneus, AKA the Scarlet Malachite beetle.
With the help of some keen entomologists we found him in our wildflower meadows last year in early June. This is a seriously rare beetle in the UK - there were less than 200 individuals spotted last year and we've been anxiously waiting to see if the population is still around for 2007 in our garden.
Thanks to a phone call from Jamie Roberts from Buglife on thursday we were
alerted to the fact that some specimens of Malachius aeneus have already been seen this year in the Essex stronghold. After work on thursday I found a single specimen feeding on Buttercup pollen, and then today (Saturday) we (Sue and myself) found seven specimens in various places in our meadows. They were feeding on Buttercup, Phleum, and Anthoxanthum pollen.
It's hard not to worry that the hot spring has tempted the beetles out earlier that is good for them. We were pleased to see that the they look extremely healthy and are flying much more strongly than they did last year. If the good weather
holds the prospects must be good as they are clearly finding plenty of pollen to eat.
I won't go into detail about the mysterious life cycle
of this charismatic little beetle - take a look at Buglife and you will find out all there is to know - amazingly little!
The image to the left shows Sue in one of our meadows reading the 24th June Sunday Independent and the beetle was on the front page! Kudos to the Indy for donating 20p for every copy sold to Buglife.
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