Natural England

Natural England

Gardening with Wildlife in Mind

The Plant Press

© 2006-2008. Database provided and managed on behalf of Natural England by The Plant Press. Designed and implemented by Ideal Integration Ltd

 

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Anaspis maculata - a tumbling flower beetle - Family: Scraptiidae

Anaspis maculata - a tumbling flower beetleAnaspis maculata - a tumbling flower beetle
© Roger Key/English Nature
UK distribution - East Anglia, Midlands, North, South East, South West

This is a small, elongate yellowish-brown beetle with variable black markings. Adults occur in very large numbers on open structured flowers such as hawthorn or elder blossom, hogweed and daisy flowers in early summer, along with several other closely related species in different colour schemes all black, red and black, yellow.

When disturbed they drop en masse and then skip around on the ground to confuse predators.

Food

This is a dead wood feeder. The adults only feed on pollen and nectar while the larvae feed on the dead wood of old twigs.

Plants

Hawthorn, Hogweed