Another flower beetle

... with bright orange flower colours.

This one is a flower longhorn beetle, Xestoleptura crassicornis.

The glossy elytra (wing covers) and the orange antennae are diagnostic features.

BugGuide has about 3,600 photos of beetles in the flower longhorn family, about half of them decked out in vivid colours, reds and orange and yellow. I wonder if these are a sign to birds that the beetles taste bad, as is said about some other insects.

But then again, we're just guessing at that, aren't we? Maybe there is no reason at all; it's just the way things happened.

Any volunteers to taste a pretty beetle? I've lost my appetite. Or I'm allergic. Or my taste buds are old. (Any excuse will do.)

Running longhorn. (Beetle, not cattle)

(For the next two weeks, I'll be travelling back and forth from Strathcona almost daily; posting here will probably be erratic. But varied - you never know what I'll find in Strathcona.)

This longhorn flower beetle was waiting for me at the back door in the Strathcona house.

Longhorn flower beetle: Xestoleptura, probably crassipes. On coffee table books and napkin.

I was busy at the moment, so I popped her* into a plastic bag and put her in the fridge. Several hours later, I remembered. The long chill hadn't slowed her down at all; as soon as I opened the bag, she ran out and scrambled over the books on the coffee table for a minute or two, then flew away.

I got one quick macro shot.

And a bunch of shots like this.

A better pose for her, and a more usual one; running away.

*I don't know the sex, but I don't like "it" for an animal that is aware of and interacting with my world. And "he" is over-worked.