UK. J. I'.N'I. NAI HIST., 13: 2001 



195 



a b 



Fig. 3. Male genitalia (part), a. R. /intra, b. R. chrysomeloid.es. (after Bielawski. 1959) 



private cars travel from mainland Europe to Britain each year (source: Eurotunnel 

 annual report, 1998). The chance of importing individual insects is clearly high but it 

 is nevertheless doubtful whether enough specimens could come in to found a 

 breeding colony. A more probable means of importation would be with young trees 

 imported from Continental nurseries. 



The chance of this specimen being a primary immigrant is low — for an example to 

 be discovered by casual beating it is more likely that colonies already exist. I have not 

 been able to return to the site of the discovery with sufficient spare time to make a 

 further search, but during the last three years I have dissected over 300 specimens of 

 Rhyzobius swept from its usual grassland habitat and confirmed that all the males 

 were litura. Meanwhile it is recommended that all specimens of Rhyzobius are 

 examined carefully, particularly if they have more extensive dark marks than usual. 

 or are beaten from trees or bushes, since Fiirsch (1967) noted that chrysomeloides 

 was found especially on pine trees and bushes, often near water. Indeed, as this note 

 was being prepared, a thriving colony of R. chrysomeloides was subsequently 

 discovered in West Molesey, Surrey (Menzies, 1999 and pers. comm.). 



Acknowledgements 



Thanks are due to Graham Collins for tidying up my lop-sided drawings. 1 am also 

 grateful to Roger Booth (CABI Bioscience) for convincing me that the specimen was a 

 male and for performing the rather intricate dissection needed to confirm its identitj . 

 The specimen has been presented to the Natural History Museum. 



References 



Bielawski, R. 1959. Klucze do oznaczania owadow Polski. Zeszyt 76. Coccinellidae. Warsaw. 

 Fiirsch, H. 1967. Family Coccinellidae. In: Freude-Harde-Lohse, Die Kafer Mitteleuropas, vol. 



7, pp. 227-278. Goecke & Evers, Krefeld. 

 Menzies, I. S. 1999. [Exhibit at 1998 BENHS annual exhibition.] British Journal of Entomology 



and Natural History 12: 176. 



