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.
Could have been a shield bug:
(http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0900/images/Gsbug.jpg)
Not so sure about the unearthed bit though as these are sun lovers.
nope it wasnt him, i have seen those before. this fella was more shiny and smoother and more...um...sleek?
Some ground beetles can be an irredescent green. They prefer it dark and shady.
RC, I had quite a few of those in spring - are they goodies or baddies ?
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!
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.
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.