What long antennae!

I started to feel better yesterday evening, which was very lucky as I had another early start, leaving the house at just after six to drive down to Colchester. I missed my morning cup of coffee, as it had irritated my stomach yesterday, and consequently had trouble staying awake on the drive. My meeting lasted just over an hour, and then it was time to return home - I was back by 11.30am!

I've had a relatively quiet afternoon, photographing some insects in the garden and helping Ben with his maths revision. I even felt well enough for a pre-dinner riverside stroll. 

My image shows a small beetle, with very long antennae and an even longer Latin name Agapanthia villosoviridescens. Mind you its English name is also fairly unwieldy - the golden-bloomed grey longhorn beetle. It's a local south eastern species with records northwards from Berkshire to Lincolnshire and west to Wiltshire. Host plants are mostly hogweed and various thistles. Eggs are laid into a small cavity bitten into the host stem by the female, usually only two to a plant. On hatching the larvae eats into the pith and makes its way to the base of the stem, sometimes into the rootstock. The larvae is unusual for a cerambycid, it can move rapidly within the excavated stem cavity using rows of tubercles on its dorsal surface. The pupa is also mobile, able to move up and down a pupal cell hollowed out within the stem and plugged top and bottom with fibres. Adults emerge from April and are found until October, being active on plant stems and flying readily in hot weather.