Timarcha tenebricosa Insect Coleopter Leaf Beetle Chrysomelidae

Timarcha tenebricosa cm 1.5-2 Insect Coleopter Leaf Beetle Chrysomelidae.
Common name: Bloody-Nosed Beetle, Blood Spewer or Blood-Spewing Beetle.
Syn. Chrysomela tenebricosa, Tenebrio coeruleus, Tenebrio laevigatus.

Timarcha tenebricosa is a beetle native to Europe. It measures 15–20 mm in length, is blue-black in colour, and is larger and narrower at the base of the pronotum than the visually similar T. goettingensis (the lesser bloodnose beetle). The species is monophagous: the larvae feed exclusively on rennet. Adults usually move slowly over the ground, in grass and herbaceous plants, mainly at night. As a defensive behaviour, they secrete droplets of their bright red-orange hemolymph by breaking thin membranes in the mouth, which has an unpleasant taste to predators. This reflex bleeding phenomenon is also seen in other insects, such as ladybirds.
The beetle is found in southern and central Europe and is common in Great Britain and Ireland.