Rhagium bifasciatum

Wow, what a thing.

I am in Wales, walking Hollie along a road and spot this little beauty on a Welsh poppy at the roadside.

I am determined to use my camera, not the phone.  It is challenging.

Kneeling down on tarmac. Cars stopping to see if I am ok, dog hassling me to get on with it. The poppy is bouncing all over the place in the strong breeze.

One of my more challenging photo shoots where I am trying to take a serious picture...what a joke!!

The macro lens has done a fair job to be honest, depth of field is not great but overall I was just glad to get a decent shot, albeit not entirely sharp across the frame.

I have deliberately desaturated the yellow to concentrate on the colours of the beetle.

Its the best I could do under the circumstances.

The beetle is common (apparently) across Europe and lays its eggs in holes bored into tree trunks where they can lay for two years before maturing into more long horned beetles!