Lily beetle

[Brian Ellis]

Eagle eye Fermi spotted them in Margaret Glynns garden yesterday. Margaret said "I dont have lily beetles". We killed 15 or more on only a few lilies

i would think most people who grow lilies in the UK now have the b****y things.  They seem to have come to a lull in our garden at the moment so it is a case of inspecting the underside of the leaves for fine red eggs to stop the next outbreak in its tracks.  We inspect them every time we walk past, (at least six or seven times a day) which makes a trip to the top of the garden a slow one!  It is my great delight to discover them when they are in the act of reproduction - at least they die with a smile on their faces.

[Darren]

We have been spared until this year (apart from a single one in 2009) but the count is up to 7 now. They are being cunning and ignoring the lilies and the obvious frits in the frame. So far there have been 4 on Frit meleagris in a border and 3 on Frit camschatcensis in the ericaceous bed.

[Lesley Cox]

Someone better use a high pressure water blaster on Fermi before he comes home.

[monocotman]

Hi,

anybody notice that lily beetles have definite favourites?
They much prefer my martagon and western american ( pardalinum) hybrids to the large OT types like Scheherazade and Silk Road.
Maybe the preferred types have thinner and more easily digested leaves.
I've given up spraying these types with provado as they get so few beetles I can pick them off,

Regards,

David

[Diane Clement]

anybody notice that lily beetles have definite favourites?
They much prefer my martagon and western american ( pardalinum) hybrids to the large OT types like Scheherazade and Silk Road.

They certainly seem to go for Fritillaria pallidiflora here.  What I don't know is how they find them in a garden full of other plants 

[johnw]

They're out here already. I saw one gnawing on the Frit at a friend's yesterday, stem severed.

johnw

[johnw]

I've given up spraying these types with provado as they get so few beetles I can pick them off,
Regards,David

We forgot to drench one year and they came in droves. The next year just a few compared to what friend's see in their gardens.

They have a fondness for bulbiferum and pyrenaicum, however I think martagons are #1 on their radar.  They hit polyphyllum hard that year and I suspect they spread virus as well. One of the Nomocharis they prefer over others, I'll try to record which. They can decimate Cardiocrinums too.

johnw

[Martin Baxendale]

I find the vast majority are on martagons in my garden. None at all on thick-leaved orientals or oriental-trumpets so far.

[mark smyth]

Fermi, Will and I were in the botanical gardens in Dublin. No lily beetles there

[chasw]

Jan even found some on the paeonie's this evening    

[wooden shoe]

A giant lily beetle  3 times as big as a normal lily beetle!
I knew they were having a feast on my lilies but I didn't know they were that nutritous.
Happily this one feeds on pollen and the larvea on decayed wood.

[johnw]

A giant lily beetle  3 times as big as a normal lily beetle!
I knew they were having a feast on my lilies but I didn't know they were that nutritous.

Any Cardiocrinum giganteums nearby? 

johnw

[Martin Baxendale]

That's not a lily beetle. It's a cardinal beetle. Larger than a lily beetle, a duller, less shiny red, and serrated antennae. Not a major pest, so no need to squish. Here's a pic from the Natural History Museum website:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/bug-forum/?q=node/224

[Martin Baxendale]

Ah, just re-read your post and it sounds like you already know what it really is 

[wooden shoe]

Yep, it's the black-headed cardinal beetle (Pyrochroa coccinea). I let this one roam free and did not let him to the same fate as it's minor brothers the lily beetles.