Wasp Beetle

Wasp Beetle, Clytus arietis, caught on the outside of my window in Hayes on 4 June 2013.

These are not scarce, but I had not seen one before 4th June.  Then, I saw one in Spring Park, crawling among a sunny bramble bank, and got a reasonably good photo.

Later the same day, I saw another crawling on the outside of the window of my computer room!  I snagged it the same way I do moths in summer, and this was the best of the resulting photos.  They are fast and jerky movers, so it's not easy to get a closeup that is actually in focus and has the whole creature in the shot.  I had to take lots.  The fact that it's on the back of my left hand shows that I have had a lot of practice in wielding a heavy camera, macro lens and ring flash with just the right.

They are completely harmless to humans.  Like the other beetles I have shown recently, they eat pollen from flowers.  Their colouration is said to fool predators into thinking they are dangerous wasps; this is known as Batesian mimicry.

Pretty!