Thick Legged Flower Beetle

As I focused on the flowers of the Feverfew, I caught this lass, avidly munching pollen, out the corner of my eye. I know she is a female because she lacks the huge muscular legs of the males, that give the species their name of Thick Legged Flower Beetle, Oedemera nobilis. Even though the day is dull, her iridescent colour sparkles. They feed on pollen from a wide variety of flowers and their larvae hatch in, and feed on, soft rotting wood.

I wasn't aiming for another bug! I was trying to get a shot of the daisy like flowers of the Feverfew, Tanacetum parthenium.

It's a beautiful bushy plant that covers with these pretty flowers. It going past it's best now and it would be pity not to get a decent image. It's a native wild flower, who's name is a corruption of the Latin, febrifugia, which means to reduce fever. It has been used as a medicinal herb for that purpose for centuries but research suggests it's effect may be no more than placebo. You can buy it in tablet form, promising cure all properties, however it would seem it is only really effective in relieving migraine for a small percentage of people.

It's another Monday and I seem to have the traditional blues, or more precisely, a desire to sleep for a week. Come on sunshine. Wimbledon's finished now!