• Home
  • about
  • about the photographs
  • Rhos-on-Sea
    • St.Trillo’s Chapel
  • Bryn Euryn Local Nature Reserve
  • Bryn Pydew Nature Reserve
  • Mynydd Marian
  • Coed Pwllycrochan Wood
  • Rhiwledyn Nature Reserve
    • Grey Seals in North Wales
  • Great Orme
  • Llanddwyn Island & Newborough Warren
  • The Wales Coast Path
  • Wildflowers of Coastal Paths, Cliffs and Dunes

everyday nature trails

everyday nature trails

Tag Archives: maybug

The Cockchafer or Maybug

29 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Beetles, garden wildlife, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

cockchafer, large beetle attracted to lights, maybug, melolontha melonontha

One morning last week I carried my early cup of tea outside to enjoy some early morning sunshine and discovered a big fat Maybug on its back on the chair. No amount of struggling was effecting him righting himself, he just lay there frantically waving his legs in the air, poor thing. Of course I helped him after I had taken advantage of his plight to photograph him, allowing him to hook his feet around my finger and placing him on the ground from where he took off rapidly and headed for the sycamore tree.

Maybug on its back showing the very furry body

Maybug, Cockchafer–Melolontha melolontha The Cockchafer is one of the more familiar large beetles as it is often encountered flying noisily about on warm evenings of the early summer, when it may crash into windows, attracted there by lights. It is also known as the May Bug as this is the month in which it most commonly appears. It is common and widespread throughout Britain and Europe except in the far north, occurring in grassy and lightly wooded places.

Cockchafers have a black head and thorax and brown sculptured elytra (wing-cases).

The larvae live on the roots of grasses and other plants in areas kept as permanent pasture and once were so abundant they were regarded as a pest species.

The beetle, particularly the male, has large impressive feathery antennae that open like a fan

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow everyday nature trails on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

‘But it is the common species that keep the living world ticking over and provide most of our experiences of wildlife, and I would argue that maintaining the abundance of these is as important a conservation priority as maintaining the existence of rarities’. Richard Mabey

MOST RECENT POSTS

  • On a Cool, Damp Day in Early Spring… April 16, 2023
  • Wild on the Streets March 30, 2023
  • Scouting Signs of Spring March 16, 2023
  • January on the Bryn January 21, 2023
  • Squirrelling Away…… October 23, 2022
  • Conwy Marine Walk February 15, 2022

OLDER POSTS

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING IN PARTICULAR?

  • The Foxglove - of Fairytales, Myths & Medicine
    The Foxglove - of Fairytales, Myths & Medicine
  • Pretty prickly Thistles
    Pretty prickly Thistles
  • Mynydd Marian
    Mynydd Marian
  • Grey Seals in North Wales
    Grey Seals in North Wales
  • Wildflowers of Coastal Paths, Cliffs and Dunes
    Wildflowers of Coastal Paths, Cliffs and Dunes
  • Spot the 'greens' on the Little Orme, but please don't eat them!
    Spot the 'greens' on the Little Orme, but please don't eat them!
  • The life of a Yellow Dung-fly
    The life of a Yellow Dung-fly
  • The blackberry bramble
    The blackberry bramble
  • Following a river to a Fairy Glen
    Following a river to a Fairy Glen
  • The Elder Tree
    The Elder Tree

nightingale trails

The Walk of the Monarch Butterfly-Sendero de la Mariposa Monarca

The Walk of the Monarch Butterfly-Sendero de la Mariposa Monarca

MY WILDFLOWER BLOG: where the wildflowers are

Snowdrop

Snowdrop

most recent posts

Follow everyday nature trails on WordPress.com

Social

  • View teresamaygreen’s profile on Twitter

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Website Built with WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • everyday nature trails
    • Join 346 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • everyday nature trails
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: