Beetles everywhere!

Southsaver_2

About a week ago a huge beetle (about an inch long and 2/3 inch wide) nearly smacked me in the face in our back garden. Now a week later, there are hundreds of them. I've just finished building a reflection pool in the garden and everyday 10 or so beetles have suicide dived into it.

I've only seen 2 bees and not even one wasp and summer is nearly upon us; I think the beetles are scaring them off! Anyone else have this problem? The beetles have a shiny green back and are pretty clumsy.

delain

They're not may bugs are they? _pale_

Southsaver_2

I've just looked up on different types of beetles. It definitely looks like the noble chafer.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Big furry headed stupid things - frilly antennae, fuzzy fawn heads, shiny black eyes, yellowish legs with hooks on for climbing up trees and about the size of the top joint of your thumb?

Them's cockchafers - May Bugs or June Bugs.

Completely harmless, rather funny in their daftness and displaying you have a very healthy garden ecosystem.

Enjoy the entertainment whilst it lasts - they'll disappear soon enough.

[looking online for a good picture - mine on my new camera aren't quite good enough as I'm not used to the macro facility yet]





[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Feldmaikäfer_(Melolontha_melolontha)_w_3.jpg/800px-Feldmaikäfer_(Melolontha_melolontha)_w_3.jpg[/IMG]


Funny things.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Ooops. Cross posted. the Noble chafer is endangered, so it may be worth checking with PTES (the Peoples' Trust for Endangered Species), to see if they want to know the location.

From their site https://www.ptes.org:

To help with the identification of noble chafers, People’s Trust for Endangered Species has produced a postcard showing how to differentiate them from the more common rose chafer beetle. If you would like copies of the postcard, please send a stamped addressed envelope to Noble Chafer Postcard, PTES, 15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road, London SW8 4BG.

Any possible noble chafer sightings are gratefully received, but they must be accompanied by a photograph (digital or film, together with a six-figure grid reference (eg SO364101) in order to verify the record. Please email laura@ptes.org or write to the address above.




Looking at the species distribution map, if you live in Dorset, this is an important sighting!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

The more common Rose Chafer




The RARE Noble Chafer

Southsaver_2

Sorry it's blurry, the cam isn't very good up close.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

It's a chafer of some kind.... [back off to t'interweb]

Hmm. The colour on the photo looks almost like the summer Chafer



A lot of online comments involve fishing them out of ponds.


And watch out above for the Hobbies catching them - it's an important food source for the birds.

fimonkey

Wow, I live in Dorset and I'm pretty sure I've seen a couple of these already.. but without a camera to hand difficult to prove and I would not reply on my powers of identification to say for sure they were the endangered ones.

ukbill69

Southsaver wrote: »

About a week ago a huge beetle (about an inch long and 2/3 inch wide) nearly smacked me in the face in our back garden.

I didnt mean to laugh out loud, but I can imagine this happening.

aplaceinthesun

Fimonkey I live in Dorset too and we definitely have visits from those Noble Chafers, although till tonight I didnt know what they were and did not realise they are endangered. We also have stag beetle visitors as well to our garden , although none yet this year, and I do record them all online. We have had very few maybugs this year due to the weather , fortunately, they drive me mad especially when they purposely fly at you !! Maybe they shouldnt but the cats catch and eat them and the dogs polish off any dead uneaten ones in the morning.... poor bugs !