In our May 2023 entry posted just two days ago, we noted that whilst this year has been brilliant in terms of numbers of Swollen Thighed Beetles present, we were perplexed as to why we were only seeing males, which have the distinct swollen thighed (hind femora) appearance shown below, and never any females.
Well as always when posting something like this, the inevitable happened and the very next day females aplenty. Just to demonstrate this physical difference between the sexes we captured the following female resting on a oxeye daisy. As can be seen her hind legs are much like the others and not dramatically swollen.
This of course does pose the question, why do the genders differ in this way? Well the answer perhaps unsurprisingly seems to have something to do with mating. Not an activity we have yet witnessed in the garden, although as the ladies only turned up yesterday this is perhaps not surprising.
DC: 04/06/2023
Wildlife Garden 