Spotty beetle

Spotted Longhorn Beetle (Rutpela maculata)

The Creeping Thistle patch is in full bloom these days, drawing hordes of insects to its bounty. This handsome Spotted Longhorn Beetle (Rutpela maculata) was among the visitors on Saturday afternoon, clambering over the flowerheads in search of pollen and nectar. We first recorded this species a few years ago, when we found one checking out a rotting plank on an old bench in the garden. Unfortunately, the weather was dull enough that I didn't get good pictures that day, so I'm delighted that this individual was out in bright sunshine. It's a distinctive insect, easy to identify thanks to those flashy black and yellow elytra (the hard cases that cover beetle wings). Its bicoloured legs and banded antennae help to distinguish it from a couple of less-common lookalikes. This widespread European species is common across England and Wales, and up into southwestern Scotland, found in parkland, hedgerows, gardens, and the borders of woodland. Eggs are laid in undisturbed decaying wood. Larvae take two to three years to develop before pupating for a month. Adults emerge from April through August, but only live two to four weeks. We're right in the middle of their peak emergence now. Maybe they'll lay the next batch of eggs in a few of the slowly decaying tree stumps we have in various corners of the garden, victims of several past windstorms.