Could somebody help identify this insect please?

[beneaton]

Hi all,

We have lots of these insects appearing. They are 1-1.5cm long, have pale orange or orange underneath, black on top bodies, two sets of wings, the top one being dark orange, thin and pointed, and shorter than the more standard wing underneath. The body shape is quite stubby. They also have antenna that look feathers at the end, somewhat like moths. They tend to appear during the day and can be quite sluggish, although smaller younger ones seem to fly around in a manner similar to wasps. They are obviously light sensitive as they congregate at the window.

I have pictures in my Flickr Gallery as I kept getting some sort of server error when I tried to upload to the Gallery on this site: Random bugs -please help me identify them! - a set on Flickr

We have pest control coming out on Monday as we also have a fairly sizeable wasps nest in our roof - these things appeared around the same time!

I hope someone can help me find out what they are, thanks!

[Jason Green]

Afternoon Ben,

This is an interesting-looking beetle called Metoecus paradoxus, which lives it's juvenile stage on the bottom of wasp-nests.

Take care,

Jason

[beneaton]

Wow thank you, that was quick. That would tally with the rather large wasps nest we appear to have!