These are huge! I was in Oxfordshire today looking after my granddaughter and saw a few of these. We don’t seem to have them further north. Jet black with gold wings, and turned up it’s tail like a scorpion when we got close.
@kvphoto@carole_sandford@koalagardens@anniesue@bubblequeen@30pics4jackiesdiamond@g3xbm@pyrrhula@ludwigsdiana Thank you all. It was almost 3cm long and I must admit the wings were beautifully golden. It's a bit of a fearsome creature with powerful mandibles apparently. This one was in my son's house in Oxfordshire, so I picked it up and took it outside. We found a couple more on our walk later. There is a small stream that runs close to the houses so that might attract them. It does make me shiver when I look at it though.
Great close up. This is a very popular beetle. He likes nightlife and that's why we rarely meet him. It must have been blowing hard and it fell off the trees.