A Not So Wee Beastie

A quick stroll to The Pasture today. I wasn’t expecting anything special insect-wise. I was hoping to catch a shot of a small frog that I noticed in one of the smaller ponds yesterday. That wasn’t to be. But mother nature saw fit to give me an opportunity to photograph a crab spider which I may show in a future post. Then as a real treat she offered up this wonderful beetle – A Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata)……I’ve never seen one of these before so it was very special to be able to watch and photograph it. According to my field guide the species is limited to localised areas of the south of England which may explain why it was a new sighting for me. In UK terms it’s a large beetle – this one was around 20mm long. And it has to be one of the most colourful! It’s a vegetarian feeding on pollen. In this case it’s feeding on Cow Parsley but I understand that one of its favourite plants is privet – which makes it my friend as privet pollen really sets off my hay fever 😉 It also likes roses which doesn’t go down well with gardeners! Here’s another view showing off the lovely copper-pink colours underneath……That was one worthwhile stroll!