This picture was taken on 18.4.05. It is an Anthaxia; perhaps A. bicolor or A. semicuprea. The second picture was taken at Ussifia on the Carmel in February. it was inside a branch of olive-wood. I took the branch home and these were the insects (third picture) that emerged during the course of March.

For more information on this insect's close and distant relatives, why not visit my check-list of Israeliinsects?