Common Red Soldier Beetle
Rhagonycha fulva · Beetles
Common Red Soldier Beetle
Dunraven Bay, 5 July 2024
A Common Red Soldier Beetle on a hedgerow flower above Dunraven Bay in July, one of the commonest insects on any British summer flowerhead, and a creature of hedges, meadows and rough grassland across Europe. It eats aphids and pollen and is harmless to everything except them.
Orange-red with black wingtips and antennae to match, conspicuous enough to have its own nickname in Britain: the bloodsucker beetle, on account of the colour rather than any habit. The other nickname is the hogweed bonking beetle, for the way pairs spend most of July on the flowerheads.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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