Soldier beetle (flower beetle)

Open sunny habitats, especially meadows, gardens, and flowering plants. Adults commonly aggregate on blooms during summer.

Adults feed mainly on nectar, pollen, and occasionally small soft-bodied insects. Larvae are predatory in soil or leaf litter, eating insect eggs and larvae.

Active by day and often conspicuous on flowers, where adults mate and feed. Females lay eggs in soil; larvae overwinter and develop as ground-dwelling predators.

They are harmless to people, plants, and pets and do not sting. Adults provide pollination, while larvae help suppress soil-dwelling pests; the pictured orange-and-black insect is identified provisionally from the image.