May bug

[Gibbsy]

I was sat at home watching the tele last night with the window open listening to the thunder, something caught my eye and i looked around to see one of these fly through the open window and straight towards the feet of my girlfriend.

http://www.nationalinsectweek.co.uk/insects/cockchafer.htm

Needless to say all hell broke loose with the paper that she was working on being scattered around the room and the sound of running only stopping as she locked herself in the bathroom.

This is a quite a big beetle and i have never seen one before it did give me a bit of a shock as well but i was brave and got it in a glass and deposited it out of the window not too much harm done !!!

 

[Toddy]

I've never seen one Big beastie, isn't it? No wonder she ran
The grubs sound like the vine weevil ones, which I destroy. Need to find a picture to tell the difference I suspect.

I had an atlas spider in the kitchen last year, over 5cms long, thick hairy legs, and it was the first time I'd seen one of them before too. I thought it'd come in with the greengrocers order then found out it's native and the enormous males go walkabout at that time of year. I don't mind picking up insects, fluttery things apart, but even I thought. " whoa, I am *not* handling *that*!"

It's amazing what's out there isn't it?

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[gregorach]

Hehe... Spend a bit of time in the tropics somewhere and you'll never look at British insects the same way again. After catching a 10" huntsman spider in my kitchen back when I lived in Oz (inside a pressure cooker - it was the only thing big enough) I'll again never be freaked out by anything this country can throw at me.

Although I do find something slightly disturbing about the name of that particular beetle...

 

[Fenlander]

These are one of the main food items of our larger bat species.

 

[sxmolloy]

Post edited. No need to lower the tone with poor jokes.
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How did the Cockchafer beetle get its name?
The name "Cockchafer" is Old English for "big beetle" while "Kafer" is German for "beetle". The beetle belongs to the Scarab beetle family * Scarabaeidae.

cockchafer - a large European beetle that is destructive to foliage, flowers, and fruit as an adult and to plant roots as a larva. In the British Isles, the name "cockchafer" refers more broadly to any of the beetles in the subfamily Melolonthinae (family Scarabaeidae), which are known in North America as June beetles, June bugs, or May beetles. See also chafer; June beetle.

 

[Fire Ferret]

gregorach, yes I had a monster huntsman in my room in OZ a few years ago but have been here for a couple of years and hardly seen anything bigger than 50p.

Came across a spider about the size of my palm the other day that made me jump, until i scolded myself for being silly

Yay for the lack of poisonous things in the UK.

 

[mark a.]

Thanks very much for posting that Gibbsy. I was just steeling myself for some Google searches to find out what they are as we've just had a load of those beetles appear (we've just moved house so we've never seen them before). They are fairly big, but they certainly seem stupid - they seem to end up on their backs on a fairly regular basis. I also had no trouble photographing one as it just sat on my chair oblivious to the camera about 2 inches away from it!

The description of them on the link is spot on - we've been sitting outside in the evenings and can hear them a mile off, buzzing and clattering away.

 

[BorderReiver]

Noisy devils aren't they?

 

[led]

They're absolutely beautiful things aren't they. Had a pair of them in the bedroom last year making a huge racket. I can understand why they seem alarming though if you've never come across them before!

 

[Rob]

I havent seen them for years, since i spent some time at a field centre near Rogate.

I am hoping that there will be some around where we have moved to now, as i keep telling Mel about them and she has never seen one.

 

[Emma]

I've always known them as Doodlebugs...

 

[falcon]

The only time I can recall seeing them is about 10 years ago when camping with my lad in central Staffordshire (he was in Cubs at the time). There were loads of them in the old toilet block as you stumbled in with a slightly fuzzy head early in the morning....certainly scarey looking but largely immobile..

 

[spamel]

I saw my first one of the year yesterday, and shock surprise, it was on it's back!! I don't think I've ever seen one on its' legs!!

 

[JonnyP]

Caught a couple in my moth trap last night.....................Jon

 

[spamel]

Oooh look, one using its' legs!!

 

[running bare]

i remember 20 odd years ago when living near bielefeld in germany on summer evenings when the residents of our flats sat out having a drink or three.we used to play tennis with the little blighters

 

[Lithril]

Hehe... Spend a bit of time in the tropics somewhere and you'll never look at British insects the same way again. After catching a 10" huntsman spider in my kitchen back when I lived in Oz (inside a pressure cooker - it was the only thing big enough) I'll again never be freaked out by anything this country can throw at me.

Although I do find something slightly disturbing about the name of that particular beetle...

Huntsman are something else aren't they, trouble is they look dead when you first see them, its not until they flare up with their legs.... My dad lives in Oz and he's massivly arachniphobic... you can imagine his surprise when one dropped out of the sun flap in the car into his lap......

Mat