Topic: shiny green bug

[sarah]

today as i was turning over some earth i  unearthed a fabulous shiney green bug.  it was about the size of my thumbnail maybe a bit bigger.  Irredescent green wing covers and it was buzzing - i dont think it was happy at having been unearthed; so i moved it too a shady spot under the shed.  I have never seen one before, not sure what it was.  i wish i had had my camera with me.

[redimp]

Could have been a shield bug:

Not so sure about the unearthed bit though as these are sun lovers.

[sarah]

nope it wasnt him, i have seen those before. this fella was more shiny and smoother and more...um...sleek?

[redimp]

Some ground beetles can be an irredescent green.  They prefer it dark and shady.

[mc55]

RC, I had quite a few of those in spring - are they goodies or baddies ?

[sarah]

i have just had a look on google images and i think you are probably right about it being a ground beetle,  never seen such a shiny one. i thtinkthey are probably goodies mc55, - too pretty to be bad!

[redimp]

Total and utter goodies - they eat slugs.  Love and nurture them.  They are shy and like the cool so provide them with some shelter.  If you use slug traps, leave a 1-2cm lip because they are rubbish climbers.  If you have a massive slug problem in one area , you can lower the soil level in that area by 2-3 cms, they fall in, can't climb out and feast on the slugs.

[mc55]

when we first came across them I was worried they might be veevils so we didn't encourage them, but I'm thinking I now need to make some sort of log wildlife house to encourage them.  They are truly magnificent close up.