- Animals
- ›Arthropods
- ›Hexapods
- ›Insects
- ›Winged and Once-winged Insects
- ›Beetles
- ›Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf, and Snout Beetles
- ›Cucujiform Beetles
- ›Leaf Beetles and Allies
- ›Leaf Beetles
- ›Chrysomelinae
- ›Chrysomelini
- ›Prasocurina
- ›Gastrophysa
Green Dock Beetle
Gastrophysa viridula
Gastrophysa viridula, known as the green dock beetle (note: the similar Gastrophysa cyanea in North America is also called the green dock beetle), green dock leaf beetle or green sorrel beetle, is a species of beetle native to Europe.
From the article Gastrophysa viridula on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The length of the green dock beetle varies between sexes, with the males being 4 mm and the females being 7 mm. During the mating season, females have enlarged abdomens. Both sexes are green with a metallic shimmer, which, depending on the light, can be gold green, blue, purple, violet, or red. The legs of this species also shimmer a metallic green, and are strongly built. The antennae are serrated and are medium in length.
Subspecies. Gastrophysa viridula pennina (Weise, 1882) Gastrophysa viridula viridula (De Geer, 1775)
Range & habitat
The green dock beetle is commonly found in central Europe, also common and widespread in Britain. Its range extends eastward into western Siberia and the Caucasus Mountains. They are found in heathlands, forests, meadows, and gardens with the presence of plant dock (Rumex), the beetles' food plant.
Wikipedia: “Distribution and habitat”
What it does
The green dock beetle feeds mainly on dock and green sorrel, rarely feeding on other plants in the families Polygonaceae, Brassicaceae, Violaceae, and Boraginaceae. The larvae can only completely develop on Rumex species.
Wikipedia: “Diet”
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Gastrophysa viridula in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 320812.