Cockchafer Beetle

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This large beetle (30mm) appeared in my moth trap yesterday. These beetles have a noisy buzzing flight and often fly into lighted window panes. Another local name  for this beetle is the  "Maybug" or the "doodlebug" and I think this must be how the noisy wartime bombs of the Second World War got their name. Cockchafers are far less common these days but in the pre pesticide days they could reach plague proportions. The adults only live for about 6 weeks but the larva live for up to 6  years underground and can do great damage to cereal crops. (The grubs are known as "rookworms" because rooks have a fondness for eating them.)
There is a wonderful story of an account of 1320 in Avignon in France when there was a plague and the cockchafers were taken to court and sentenced to withdraw within three days or they would be outlawed (they didn't withdraw!). A 16th Century account details how water mills on the river Severn were unable to operate because they got clogged up with the bodies of the beetles during an infestation.
In some areas cockchafers were used as food.  A 19th C French recipe for cockchafer soup suggests that you roast a pound of cockchafers in sizzling butter - cook in a chicken soup - and serve with veal liver and chives on toast - yum yum! (Although you might struggle to collect a pound of cockchafers these days)
With the recent ban on some pesticides cockchafer numbers are again on the increase.

Diary
Now that I know where to look I am seeing the hedgehog each night. It comes out at about 10.00pm just as it is getting dark and seems to prefer an unkempt bit of grass near to a log pile. I saw it at 2000hrs and my trail cams have it in the same area at 0300 hrs.
I was out with my bat detector briefly last night and had pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle and a noctule earlier on.
Day time temps of about 18C yesterday and forecast to rise above 20C today.




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