I was so impressed with our chief Bug Hunter, Sol, he identified it as soon as he saw it. He knows so much about insects through his continuing interest in the insect world, since he was 2.
This is the first we have ever found and believe me we spend a lot of time bug hunting so this is a big, exciting discovery here! Since then we have learnt that common cockchafers have a long development time as larvae in the soil. The grubs can spend up to 3 years underground until they pupate, and thus adult cockchafers appear in a cycle of every three or four years. The adults live around 6 weeks and feed on tree leaves, a favourite being oak leaves.
This one is a large, male common cockchafer. Male cockchafers have seven "leaves" on their antennae, whereas the females have only six. See, this one has seven leaves.
Sol found another one today (the whitish one). And Mark found one while at work and brought it home for the boys.
Cockchafers are European beetles that were once such a pest to crops that they were nearly exterminated with pesticides. Their numbers are now increasing with stricter pest control regulations and these days Cockchafers cause almost no damage at all. This is most probably due to the widespread use of mechanical cultivators that kill the very fragile larvae.
They fly at night making a buzzing noise when in flight and often crash into windows with a thud!
Why do bugs fly into the light?
When insects fly at night they use light sources such as the moon for navigation. If the light is from a closer source such as a candle or lantern, it changes the insect's perception. The intensity of the light in each eye affects the rate at which they beat their wings, this enables them to fly in a straight line over long distances. That is, until they encounter a light bulb, then all bets are off. These “artificial moons” cause the poor insects a great deal of confusion which is why we often see them flying erratically around our porch lights.The cockchafer is featured in a German children's rhyme similar to the English Ladybird, Ladybird:
Cockchafer fly...
Your father is at war
Your mother is in Pomerania
Pomerania is burned to the ground
Cockchafer fly!
