Phyllobius glaucus (Scopoli, 1763)

This species is locally common throughout Europe from the Mediterranean north to the UK and southern provinces of Fennoscandia, it also occurs in North Africa and extends through Asia Minor and Russia to central Siberia, it has long been included on the Canadian list but this is based on a single specimen from the 19th century and it has not been recorded since. Here it is locally common throughout England and Wales though absent from much of the West Country, and sporadic and scarce in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Adults are active from April until August although specimens may occur much earlier or later than this, they are widely polyphagous and have been recorded feeding on foliage of a wide range of broadleaf trees but are most frequently associated with Alder (Alnus glutinosa Mill.)) and less so with Birch (Betula pendula Roth.), on the continent they are also associated with a range of fruit trees and are occasional minor pests when adults occur in numbers and damage foliage and flowers in gardens and orchards. Typical habitats are damp, shady woodland, wetland margins and trees by moorland pools etc, they also occur on trees in parks and gardens but favour damp and shaded sites and rarely occur in exposed situations. Breeding occurs early in the season and females lay small batches of eggs in the soil among the roots of herbaceous or shrubby vegetation. Larvae develop through the summer and overwinter as final instars in the soil; they complete their development in the spring and pupate in the soil from March. Adults are easily sampled by beating or sweeping likely foliage; they may be found in numbers early in the season but otherwise tend to occur as single specimens or in pairs.

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7.5-10.0 mm. Among the larger and more convex of our green weevils, with a little experience only likely to be confused with P. pomaceus Gyllenhal, 1834, which usually occurs on nettles and has dark legs. Body black with dense metallic green or golden scales, appendages variable but the vast majority of specimens have orange or pale brown legs and substantially pale antennae, in most darkened only towards the apex. The dorsal scales are elongate and very narrow, in places almost like setae, and there are no erect protective setae on the pronotum and elytra. Head transverse with prominent convex eyes and straight or slightly bulging temples, surface evenly and weakly convex, rostrum elongate, at least 1.5X longer than wide, depressed along the centre and with lateral scrobes that are directed towards the eyes and visible from above towards the apex. Antennae long and slender, the scape curved and gradually thickened towards the apex, funicular segments elongate; the third and fourth at least 2X longer than wide, club long and slender. Pronotum transverse, broadest about the middle and evenly curved weak constrictions before the basal and apical angles, surface densely punctured, confluently so in places, scales directed obliquely from the middle. Elytra with broad rounded shoulders; parallel-sided in the male and weakly, though distinctly, dilated towards the apex in the female, apical margin continuous and usually slightly acuminate, striae strongly punctured and usually visible to the apex, interstices flat, finely and densely punctured, towards the base with scattered curved dark setae. All femora strongly toothed, tibiae rounded externally i.e. not ridged, the internal surface in the male more densely pubescent than in the female. Tarsi pseudotetramerous, claws fused at the base.