Polydrusus formosus

Polydrusus formosus

This was swept from a Walnut tree. I keyed it using Duff. Note that the live photos below have come out looking more yellowy-bronze and less green than it looked in life (or in the photos taken through the microscope).

Polydrusus formosus showing rostrum from above and side, antenna, head from above, fore femur and elytral scales, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 27th May 2025

I returned to the same Walnut tree one month later and found another, this time looking a lot more worn than the first. It had a glabrous area between the antennae which made me wonder if it might be Pachyrhinus but that genus should have a transverse ridge whereas this had a vague triangular ridge, or at least angle. It keyed to formosus using Duff. The elytral scales looked more perfectly round than suggested in the key, and comparing them to the set of scales photos in Mark Gurney's guide I thought they matched Polydrusus pterygomalis better, but the head shape ruled that out.

Polydrusus formosus showing rostrum from side and above, head from above, fore femur and elytral scales, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 27th June 2025

Although the examples shown above were the first I identified, I had some more among the specimens I had waiting to be identified. This one was found on Dock.

Polydrusus formosus, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 1st June 2024