Small metallic green beetle for ID please

[Gerel]

Does anyone recognise this one?
I thought perhaps a leaf beetle of some kind.

It was found on dead wood on a wooded river bank in Wales.

Approx 8 mm long.

Apologies for photo quality I don't have a proper macro lens yet so had to improvise.



Thanks

Steve

[aeshna5]

It is a leaf beetle (chrysomelid). Always easier when they are on the food plant, but it looks like Gastrophysa viridula to me which feeds on docks + allied plants like Persicaria. I remember seeing a lot on P. amphibium during the summer. These insects over-winter as adults.

[Gerel]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

It is a leaf beetle (chrysomelid). Always easier when they are on the food plant, but it looks like Gastrophysa viridula to me which feeds on docks + allied plants like Persicaria. I remember seeing a lot on P. amphibium during the summer. These insects over-winter as adults.

Thanks Aeshna5,

We did have hundreds of G. viridula earlier in the year, every dock plant seemed to have a few (the first time I saw them, a few years ago, I thought the egg bearing females were diseased).

This one struck me as larger and subtly different (smaller head perhaps) but I could easily be wrong.

Steve