Oedemera nobilis - a thick-legged flower beetle - Family: Oedemeridae

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Oedemera nobilis - a thick-legged flower beetle
© Roger Key/English Nature

This spectacular shiny metallic green beetle is most often seen on flowers. Only the male has the hugely thickened 'thighs' that give the family of beetles its name. They are used in mating.

This species is often seen on the flowers of ox-eye daisies. Another commonly seen species in gardens is a dull sage-green colour. Both are common throughout southern and south east England, but are a lucky rare find in the north, apart from south Cumbria where they are not uncommon.

Adults feed on pollen in a wide variety of open-structured flowers. It may be found on various members of the daisy, carrot and rose family, including hogweed, hawthorn, dogrose and bramble. The larvae live in hollow plant stems.

Food

Plant, wood and detritus feeder: adults eat flower pollen and nectar; larvae feed on soft decaying wood and the pith inside some dead plant stems.

Plants

Bramble, Dog rose, Hawthorn, Hogweed, Ox-eye daisy