Wednesday 29 January 2014

a dog ignores plague soldier beetles

Yesterday, as Penny swam at Willsmere, I was entranced by the clouds of golden beetles hovering in the sunshine beside the river. They were all around Penny as she was guarding her toys from the other dogs, but she didn't take any notice of them.

Today, a cooler day, they were there again, this time clustering on grasses and on the trunk of a tree.


I found out their name by asking a man who was spraying weeds in the park. (How much work goes into maintaining these parks that Penny enjoys!) I thought the name sounded scary, but he said they're harmless.

And he was correct. Here's an article about these beautiful but strangely-named creatures. They are nectar drinkers.



This one had the nerve to land on Penny's toy!


6 comments:

Mary said...

They are beautiful, when they are flying around you see the lovely orangey-yellow body much more clearly.

Molly the Airedale said...

They're a very different color than bugs that we see here. What a nerve of them to crawl on your toy, Penny!

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

parlance said...

Mitch and Molly, the cheeky critter flew off before Penny came back for her toy, so no one suffered, lol.

parlance said...

Mary, I wish I could have figured out a way to get a shot of them flying in the sunlight.

Johann The Dog said...

Cool! We have a bug here that looks a lot like these....am sure they are different, but maybe related!

parlance said...

Johann, I think insects are super interesting.