Fotos

Green Leaf Weevil, phyllobius maculicornis, in the process of producing the next generation ;-)
The green glittering colour on these beetles can be rubbed off rather easily, and for that reason it's often easy to see which sex they are this time of the year - the ones with black patches without any green on the backs are the females. Their green colour has been rubbed off when eager males have been scrambling around on their backs..
This particular female looked as if she'd just about had enough of her mate and was trying to make him fall off. When I first spotted the pair, she was striding purposefully down this leaf (notice the motion blur on two of her legs). When she reached the end of the leaf, she just continued over the rim and marched on on the bottom side of the leaf - and with the male still clinging to her back. Twice I watched her trying to get onto the top side of the leaf again, but this proved too much of a task, so she stayed on the side where I couldn't reach her with the camera.
Like the other photo of green weevil this photo was taken hand held and using manual focus, as these beetles are too small to catch and hold with the autofocus of the camera.
Treatment: Crop, contrast +10, saturation +10, USM and resize.