This new bug is intriguing. According to the British Bugs website, it was only found in England in 2007, and only on Plane trees in London and the southern counties. Due to that association with Plane trees, the experts decided that the bug they’d found was Arocatus longiceps, and, when an extremely similar-looking bug was found in the same locations several years later, but was found to be feeding only on the seeds of Alder trees, the consensus was that it must be Arocatus roeselii. Since that time, German scientists have checked the genes of the two species and found no difference between them; the red and black colours of the Alder seed-eaters are apparently more intense but this is likely to be due to their diet, rather than an indication that they are two separate species.

So, if you were to google or research these bugs, you might see them referred to as Arocatus longiceps / roeselii. I found my bugs, both the nymph in the photos above and the adult in the image below, on a roadside Alder tree last Sunday, so I’m going to stick with the name Arocatus roeselii until any possible species confusion is irrevocably settled. And aren’t they super looking little bugs, whatever you might want to call them?

** EDIT: I found out on 1 August that this find was the first for Wales! **