Bug hunting day

Many many bugs & beasties found today but I love this little cereal leaf beetle's colouring.



Oulema melanopa

At only 5mm in length this cereal leaf beetle could hardly be called conspicuous, but a close inspection shows it to be very handsomely coloured.

Both the larvae, which appear like very small slugs in early summer, and the adult beetles feed on grasses and are considered to be a pest of cereal crops. By eating the surface of the leaves they diminish the vigour of the food plant and thus it's productivity.

The species is reputed to be abundant from April to September. When the food plant dies back, the new adults take refuge in loose litter at ground level where they shelter till the following spring.