He's got a ticket to ride

The arrival of Spring is, if you were to believe its name, heralded by the Primrose, although around here it isn't so much in prime place as about fourth or fifth on the blooming list.

However, late March is also the time to go looking for the Sea Plantain Leaf Beetle (or if that's too much of a mouthful, you could try Chrysolina latecincta spp. intermedia).

This smartly-suited beetle is rare in the UK, limited to only a few locations in Scotland which happily, includes the west coast of Orkney.

So here's an example of the habitat (above) and below are three beetles basking on a rock so that you can get your eye in (human shown for scale). 

If you're having trouble, there's one low on the left, with the other two being just above centre on the right.

Here's a mating pair being photographed.

Ok, ok, let's zoom in a bit closer so that we can see these wee beasties in all their finery.

In less than half an hour, we found more than 60 beetles, the sunny weather very much helping our task. I had hoped that it might be possible to watch where a female goes to lay her eggs after mating, but sadly (and somewhat humblingly), none of the couples were in any hurry to reach a denouement. Still, it was difficult to be down-hearted on such a lovely day, amongst such stunning scenery.

Please note, to preserve your sanity, a whole host of gratuitous Beatles puns were removed from this post.