Malachite

I rarely see Malachite Beetles here - the last time I had one in the garden was two years ago. Today's specimen was fat enough for me to assume it was a gravid female, until I got a close-up view of the front end, when the fact that the face is yellow below the eyes, and especially the odd knobbly bits on the second to fourth antennal segments, told me that it's actually a male. Those antennal modifications produce a pheromone which is irresistible to females of the species, though they will sometimes simply eat the pheromone secretions off the antennae and then leave again without mating.

Both adults and their larvae are predacious, though the adults also consume pollen and nectar. Females lay their eggs in grass tussocks or bark crevices, and the larvae, which are active and agile, develop through the summer before pupating over the winter. Adults emerge in April and May, and are on the wing until about August. Both sexes possess red sacs along the sides of their bodies - just visible here - which they inflate under stress or during sexual arousal, and from which they can emit a noxious chemical to deter predators.

R: C2, D8.