Smaragdina salicina (Scopoli, 1763)

This widespread Palaearctic species occurs from Europe to Siberia and China; in Europe it occurs from Spain to Greece in the south and extends north to Denmark and the Baltic countries where it reaches southern provinces of Sweden and Finland. The species is locally common across central Europe from the Pyrenees to Germany and parts of Hungary and Poland but is otherwise very local and rare. There is a single UK record, from Buckinghamshire in 2011 when a single specimen was swept from a mixed hedgerow on chalk grassland in the Chiltern Hills. Typical habitats are damp grassland, thickets and scrub, open woodland and wetland margins although the diurnal adults fly and frequent flowers (especially Hawthorn blossom) in warm weather and so may occur away from their usual habitat. In Finland, where it is very rare, it also occurs in mixed woodland dominated by Spruce and with a rich herbaceous flora. Adults are active from April until July, peaking in abundance during May and June, and individual specimens are occasionally recorded during August, September, December and January, suggesting overwintering in the pupal stage. The biology is only poorly understood but females oviposit from May, enclosing small batches of eggs in silken sacks covered with faeces, and attaching them to foliage. Larvae are known to feed on willow (Salix L.) foliage and first instars have been described (Oglobin & Medvedev, 1971), but later instars and pupae are unknown. Adults feed on foliage of a range of broadleaf trees but are usually associated with willows and, less often, hawthorn.