Adults commonly about 8–11 mm.
Fine-art photographic collection
Oedemera nobilis
A metallic flower beetle whose male carries hind thighs dozens of times bulkier than the female’s.
About this species
False Oil Beetle
Oedemera nobilis(Scopoli, 1763)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Oedemera nobilis is a vivid green pollinating beetle of open flowers. Males are instantly recognisable by enormously swollen hind femora, while females retain slender legs.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Oedemeridae · Oedemera
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
western and central Europe and the western MediterraneanBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
western and central Europe and the western Mediterranean
Flower-rich grassland, gardens, hedgerows, dunes and woodland edges.
Diurnal in warm sunshine from late spring through summer.
Adults eat pollen and nectar; larvae develop inside dry plant stems.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Three-dimensional measurements found the male hind femur to be about thirty-eight times the volume of the female’s — one of the insect’s most extreme sex differences.
The adults become dusted with pollen while feeding on open flowers and can transfer it between plants, acting as small metallic pollinators.
Despite the male’s spectacular thighs, experiments found no evidence that the swollen legs improve take-off speed, leaving their precise advantage unresolved.
More photographs
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