“You can’t spell ‘Diet’ without ‘Die’
I’ve been eatin’ carbs since ’95
And I heard thick thighs save lives
And I heard thick thighs save lives
So love thyself”
– Priscilla Black, ‘Thick Thighs’
I’m still obsessed with the sparklies; this emerald green beauty is the Swollen Thighed Beetle, Thick-Legged Flower Beetle, or Oedemera nobilis … and if he isn’t looking coquettishly back over his shoulder in that top picture, I know nothing! I say ‘he’ because only the males have the chunky thighs; the females look very similar but have normal sized legs (I don’t think I’m reinforcing any harmful stereotypes when I say that!). Clearly, he isn’t suffering from any negative body image.
The Wildlife Trust website tells me that these used to only be found in a few places, but that they have now become much more widespread. Given how many of them I’ve found in the space of a couple of days, I would have to agree! They are a pollen eating species, feeding on open faced flowers such as Ox-Eye Daisy and Hogweed. Having said that, as my own photos show, they obviously also feed on Buttercups, Ragged Robin, and Hedge Woundwort.
Walking today, I came up with a question, though … why are so many beetles sparkly? Surely, it makes them more obvious to predators? How could it possibly be beneficial to the insect itself? Is it to attract a mate? The questions running through my brain reminded me of a lecturer at uni who said that the mark of a good ecologist is asking questions. It seems that the more time I spend finding things out, the more questions I have.
A quick internet search when I got home suggested that iridescence can actually help beetles be more camouflaged, blurring their outline to confuse predators. It seems counterintuitive, but I assume it’s one of those moments when animals seeing different wavelengths of light changes the way they interact with the world. There are also scientists currently trying to work out the purpose of being glossy; turns out that a glossy shell has no appreciable effect on the likelihood of being eaten by a bird, but could make them harder to see by human beings.
All I can say is that, if these guys were trying to hide from me, they weren’t doing that good a job.
At the risk of sounding too teachery …
Must try harder.
absolutelynotnormal 