| Thick-legged Flower Beetle (Oedemera nobilis (Scopoli, 1763)) |
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Scientific name: Oedemera nobilis (Scopoli, 1763) Common name: Thick-legged Flower Beetle French name: Oedemère noble Order: Coleoptera Family: Oedemeridae Wingspan : 8-10 mm. Biotope: Meadows, woodland edges, forest tracks. Larvae live inside old plant stems like ragwort. Adults feed on pollen and you can often observe them on flowers. Geographic area: Western and Mediterranean Europe, North Africa. Observation period : April to August. |
The Thick-legged Flower Beetle has a shiny blue-green metallic colour. The male can be easily recognized with its hugely thickened 'thighs'. Thick-legged Flower beetle also have long and separate Elytra which are narrowed towards the apex so that you can see the membranous wings. Oedemera nobilis also shows a long white pubescence on the head, on the pronotum and on the hind tibiae of males. There is a similar species, Oedemera flavipes. You can distinguish these species by the colour of the fore leg tibiae which are deep black on Oedemera nobilis while they are yellowish on Oedemera flavipes. |
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The colour of the tibias of the fore legs is not visible. There is still a possible confusion between Oedemera nobilis and Oedemera flavipes. There is a long white pubescence, I have read that this is a criteria to distinguish nobilis from flavipes but I have not found any confirmation about this. I will just mention Oedemera sp. I am used to observing many Oedemerae beetles on flowers in summer, but with my current skills and camera equipment I have not yet succeeded in getting a correct picture. "Same player shoot again!" |
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The fore leg tibia is not yellowish. You can see the long white pubescence. I think that this one is Oedemera nobilis. |
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The quality of my pictures is getting better :-) |
André Bon March 2017