Thunder thighs

Male

Here's another insect that has been everywhere so far this summer, though somehow, I'd never seen one before this year. It's a Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) — identified as a male by those distinctively swollen back legs. The female is thinner and lacks those big "thighs" (known as "femora" in insects), though she shares the pointed elytra (a fancy word for the hard coverings that protect the wings) with the noticable gap in the middle. They're found in a variety of open habitats and feed on pollen, so we're seeing plenty in the flower borders at the moment, crawling over anything that's blooming. The larvae live in herb stems. Widespread in southern and western Europe, this species has been rapidly expanding its range in England since 1995. It flies from April through August, so we'll be seeing a lot of them for a while, I think.

Female