The Box Bug Gonocerus acuteangulatus, new to Essex, a squash bug
to look out for in your garden and elsewhere
Peter Harvey 32 Lodge Lane, Grays, Essex RM16 2YP
The Box Bug Gonocerus acuteangulatus (Goeze, 1778), is a coreid bug with nationally
Endangered status (RDB1) that was always a very rare insect known only from Box Hill
in Surrey, where it was associated with Box Buxus sempervivens on the brow of the hill.
Then in 1990 it was first found away from Box Hill at Bookham Common, some 6 km to
the north-west. Since that time it has continued to spread outwards and used new food-
plants; certain hosts including hawthorn and rose, but nymphs and adults have also been
found on a range of other berry-bearing shrubs, potential over-wintering sites such as
pine, holly and ivy, as well as other trees and herbaceous plants (Hawkins 2003). In
2002 it was found in the Brighton area in Sussex, and since then also in Hampshire,
Berkshire and Bristol (Evans & Edmondson 2005), as well as Kent (where I found at
Ightham Mote in 2007) and in a garden in Peterborough in 2007 (P. Kirby, pers. comm.).
On 24* August 2008 I was pleased to find an adult Box Bug perched on a Mahonia bush
immediately adjacent to an old Box shrub in my garden in Grays, S. Essex. Just three days
later 1 beat a number of interesting looking coreid nymphs at Walthamstow from rose
scrub supporting a good quantity of rose hips, and suspecting they might also be Box
Bugs, I kept one alive to try and rear to an adult. Obligingly it moulted and matured on 2"d
September, providing confirmation of my suspicions. On 12th September I beat an adult
from hip bearing rose scrub at Cheshunt Marsh near Waltham Abbey, further north in the
Lea valley in North Essex, just next to the boundary with Herts. Then an experimental
investigation of the Box in my garden on 15"1 September produced a second adult.
Clearly it is worth looking out for the species, which could well turn up almost anywhere
in the county. It is quite distinctive (see Plate 4), but could be confused with the Dock
Bug Coreus marginatus (Plate 5), a common and widespread squashbug that is likely to
be found in many gardens in Essex as well as the general countryside. C. marginatus is
quite similar in appearance to the Box Bug, but not as neat in appearance, generally a
darker brown and broader with the sides of the abdomen obviously more expanded. It
has two long forward pointing processes on the inner sides of the tubercles bearing the
antennae not present in Gonocerus.Pipe Club Macrotyphula fistulosa
I am very grateful to David Miller (Lee Valley Regional Park Authority) for
commissioning survey at Walthamstow Marshes and permission to undertake fieldwork.
References
Hawkins, R.D. (2003) Shieldbugs of Surrey. Surrey Wildlife Trust.
Evans, M. & Edmondson, R. (2005) A photographic guide to the shieldbugs and
squashbugs of the British Isles. WGUK.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 59, May 2009
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