The Urban Pantheist

This one hung around just long enough for me to guess (correctly) that it was in the soldier beetle family, but not long enough to get a picture that could identify it to genus. Soldier beetles, family Cantharidae*, are usually found on or near flowers, where they can get at nectar, pollen, and aphids. A balanced meal! Soldier beetles are apparently named for some reddish species which brought to mind the British redcoats. They are also called "leatherwings" because their outer wings are not hard and shiny like on ladybeetles or scarabs, for example. They are related to the fireflies, which likewise have relatively soft elytra.

* from Greek kantharos, a kind of beetle.