Ha ha. I knew I'd be wrong and someone would put me right !
. Does look a bit like a lilly beetle tho.
I've never studied them closely. Maybe next time I get one I should. I'm a butterfly and bee person. Not that I know too much about them either, but I do enjoy watching them so much even if I can't identify them
It was the right sort of colour range, and it definitely noticeable
I live next to a nature walk, really the grown up hedges running alongside an old mineral railway line, that runs parallel to a burn that rises as a fresh water spring about 400m away. We get a tremendous number of beetles, but as Broch says, there are thousands of them, and the differences can be miniscule. Teaching the children I just described them using common names, 'the devil's coachman....that's the aggressive black one that attacks earthworms, I think it's called the devil's coach horse too, 'horny gollochs' aka earwigs, 'slaters' or woodlice, soldiers in their bright jackets, stag beetles (ours probably aren't really, I think they're just huge ground beetles, but the kids call them stags) shield bugs, etc.,
Lot of bees too, and masses of moths. I like hearing the common names across the country for the insects
Sorry Forest fella, we've rather gone O.T.