False Blister Beetle - unnamed 1

Oedemera lurida is a slender greyish beetle about 6 - 8 millimetres long.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Oedemera lurida.
Family: 
False Blister Beetles
Family Latin name: 
OEDEMERIDAE
Category: 
Insects other

Species description

Species description

Oedemera lurida is a slender greyish, dull-green beetle about 6–8 millimetres long. They feed on pollen and nectar and can be spotted on open flowers in bright sunlight.

These beetles closely resemble Swollen-thighed Beetles, although males lack the swollen thigh of that beetle, and the metallic green of their wing casings.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

False Blister Beetles are the world's largest insect group with around 4,000 different species in Britain and 300,000 different species worldwide. This family of beetles have hard coverings over their front wings, and biting mouthparts.

Category information

Insects evolved in the Ordovician from a crustacean ancestral lineage as terrestrial invertebrates with six legs (the Hexapoda). This was the time when terrestrial plants first appeared. In the Devonian some insects developed wings and flight, the first animals to do so. An early flying group was the Odonata from the Carboniferous, the damselflies and dragonflies, which have densely-veined wings and long, ten-segmented bodies. They are day-flying carnivores, with an aquatic larval stage, so are commonly seen flying near water. The carnivorous larvae are called nymphs. Odonata species are short-lived, damselflies surviving for 2-4 weeks, dragonflies for up to 2 months.

Some insect groups in the Cretaceous co-evolved with the flowering plants, and they have had a close association ever since. These groups are the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the Diptera (flies), and the Coleoptera (beetles). The diversity of beetles is astonishing. Of all the known animal species on the planet, one in five is a beetle!