Friday 27 May 2011

Eye-catching Insects (6): Iridescent Beetle

Thick-legged Flower Beetle ~ Oedemera nobilis

I was struck by the iridescence of this beetle, scuttling its way across an Ox-eye Daisy. I wonder what pigment colour it really is, once you 'remove' or 'ignore' the iridescence. I saw several of these insects last week at WWT Llanelli. The males have particularly thick femora or thighs.

2 comments:

Keren Dibbens-Wyatt said...

Thanks for posting this, just saw two in my garden and have been trying to identify them, just beautiful! Such a great photo, my camera can't cope with such small creatures. :)

Caroline Gill said...

Thanks for your comment, Keren. Well, it must be 'that' time of year as I see I saw these almost exactly a year ago today ... when I was living in Swansea!