Oedemera nobilis (Scopoli, 1763)

To ease you back after one post where certainty is currently impossible, here's one where it's unavoidable:

Photographed in August 2012, in Bosham, West Sussex, UK, using Olympus E-420 DSLR, Zuiko 40-150 mm lens and three KOOD magnifiers.

This colourful character is a male of the common European species

Oedemera nobilis

(Scopoli, 1763). 

also known as, in the UK, the swollen-thighed beetle, a pollen-feeding species seen frequently on almost all flowers from June through to August.

Where many pollinators have vastly different early diets, the larvae of these beetles are also herbivorous, feeding on Broom and Thistles, and for their overwintering, presumably require the dead stems of these plants to be left uncut. Certainly in the area where this was photographed, abundance has increased dramatically since a half-acre or so of land on the edge of the salt-marsh has been set aside from farming and mowing, and turned to rough grassland.

 Here's another angle to illustrate the thigh in question, on a more evenly coloured individual:

And with that, once more into the taxonomy:

- Oedemerini

- Oedemerinae

- Oedemeridae  

- Tenebrionoidea 

- Cucujiformia       

See also Malachius bipustulatus, Otiorhynchus atroapterus and Cheilomenes lunata.

- Polyphaga              

See also Melolontha melolontha.

- Coleoptera                

See also Demetrias atricapillus and Anthia fornasiini.

- Coleopterida                

- Endopterygota                

See also Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Diasemopsis meigenii, Dolichotachina caudata, Megistocera filipes, Panorpa germanica, Acada biseriata, Anthocharis cardamines, Laelia robusta, Zebronia phenice, Crambus pascuella , Andrena nigroaenea, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Hagenomyia tristis and Metadon inermis.

- Eumetabola                       

See also Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Ranatra and Grypocoris stysi

- Neoptera                               

See also Cyathosternum prehensile, Lobosceliana loboscelis, Stictogryllacris punctata, Sibylla and Humbe tenuicornis

- Manopterygota                         

See also Pseudagrion hageni, Enallagma cyathigerum and Rhyothemis semihyalina

- Pterygota                                      

- Dicondylia                                       

- Insecta                                                  

- Hexapoda                                                 

- Arthropoda                                                   

See also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi and Hyllus argyrotoxus

- Ecdysozoa                                                        

- Protostomia                                                          

- Nephrozoa                                                               

See also Burhinus vermiculatus, Sterna hirundo, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Hipposideros vittatus, Rana temporaria, Chiromantis xerampelina, Synchiropus splendidus and Troglodytes troglodytes

- Bilateralia                                                                    

- Eumetazoa                                                                       

- Animalia                                                                              

- Eukaryota