Beautiful Big Beetle

I was excited to see and photograph my first Essex skipper butterfly of 2021 but have decided to post this wonderful rose chafer beetle instead. I included one in a montage the other day but I didn't shoot it with my macro lens like I have this one. I love these great big fluffy beetles. They are from the scarab family, held in high regard by the ancient Egyptians. Scarabs are still popular motifs. The Queen wore her favourite scarab brooch, given to her by Prince Philip, when she visited the company of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in Portsmouth in advance of its maiden departure recently.

There's an interesting fact about the rose chafer beetle that does my head in. The metallic green colour of the beetle is created structurally, caused by the reflection of mostly circularly polarised light; like other scarabs this is left circularly polarised. When viewed through a right circular polariser, the beetle appears to be colourless. What?! :)

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