As we ventured down our allotment in March we came across loads of these little purple and green striped beetles on our large rosemary bush. It turns out that they are Chrysolina americana a pest found on rosemary and it's relatives such as lavender. As I had never seen it before I took some photos and did a bit of a google hunt when I got home. It turns out to be quite interesting and my web searching showed why I did not remember ever seeing one before as they have not been around all that long. This beetle was first found in Britain in 1963, crawling about in a kitchen in Disley, Cheshire. The conclusion was that the beetles had been accidentally brought back in some pretty pine cones, collected on the family holiday in Portugal. Despite its scientific name it is a Mediterranean, not an American, species. Then in 1994 it appeared in the RHS Garden at Wisley, this time outdoors, feeding on garden rosemary. It was not long before it started turning up all over the place.
