This gave rise to events that seem bizarre from a modern perspective. Despite their clumsiness, these winged beetles are destructive, for they find their food by stripping foliage from trees. The preferred food for adults is oak leaves, but they will also feed on conifer needles. The two species can best be distinguished by the form of their tail end: it is long and slender in the common cockchafer, but shorter and knob-shaped at the end in the forest. Adults appear at the end of April or in May and live for about five to seven weeks. The male of the species has seven leaves on each antenna, whereas the female has only six. A German newspaper from Fulda from the 1920s tells of students eating sugar-coated cockchafers. So, when you next see a May bug, doodlebug, chovy or Billy witch, remember – however alarming it may look, it isn’t a cockroach, it isn’t going to sting you, and while it may do some damage to your garden, it won’t harm you. [1], Collecting adults was an only moderately successful method. After about two weeks, the female begins laying eggs, which she buries about 10 to 20 cm deep in the earth. At present, no chemical pesticides are approved for use against cockchafers, and only biological measures are utilised for control: for instance, pathogenic fungi or nematodes that kill the grubs are applied to the soil. These help us understand and improve your and other users’ experience with the website, and make it easy for you to share pages. For example, with bed bugs we now use a combination of residual insecticide and a diatomaceous insecticide – a natural rock that when ingested by the insects dehydrates them. Then count yourself lucky, as in southern Germany is another type of Cockchafer, called the Large Cockchafer. M. pectoralis Germar, 1824. The common cockchafer lays its eggs in fields, whereas the Forest Cockchafer stays in the vicinity of the trees. Both the grubs and imagos have a voracious appetite and thus have been and sometimes continue to be a major problem in agriculture and forestry. Because of their long development time as larvae, cockchafers appear in a cycle of every three or four years; the years vary from region to region. In some areas and times, cockchafers were served as food. Once abundant throughout Europe and a major pest in the periodical years of "mass flight", it had been nearly eradicated in the middle of the 20th century through extensive use of pesticides and has even been locally exterminated in many regions. Subsequently, since they failed to comply, they were collected and killed. The cockchafer, colloquially called Maybug[1][a] or doodlebug,[3] is the name given to any of the European beetles of the genus Melolontha, in the family Scarabaeidae. Adults: cockchafer beetles are large and bulky, growing up to 30mm in length. They work their way to the surface only in spring. There is a larger cycle of around 30 years superimposed, in which they occur (or rather, used to occur) in unusually high numbers (10,000s). The cockchafer was the basis for the "fifth trick" in the well-known illustrated German book Max and Moritz, dating from 1865. They have hard brown heads with powerful jaws, and their bodies have three pairs of legs. As May slowly draws to a close, I have only just seen my first May bug. This wasn’t such a problem as they have, at various times, been considered a delicacy. Since then, agriculture has generally reduced its use of pesticides. It is too easy to liberally spray chemicals around, but there is always a knock-on effect. Posted in Insects, News, Wildlife on Thursday, 14 March 2013. The European cockchafer, belonging to the scarabaediae family of beetles, is destructive chiefly to unimportant vegetation. In this way, we are not only effective at removing the problem, but also, we are greatly reducing the amount of chemicals left in the environment. She may do this several times until she has laid between 60 and 80 eggs. Their undersides are covered with fine white hairs. © 2005-2020 Look and Learn - All rights reserved, Orwell – the Old Etonian tramp who became a visionary, Asquith’s premiership was a casualty of World War One, The clumsy cockchafer is a dangerous flying beetle. Your mother is in Pomerania English boys in Victorian times played a very similar game by sticking a pin through one of its wings. There are three species of European cockchafers: Adults of the common cockchafer reach sizes of 25–30 mm; the forest cockchafer is a little smaller (20–25 mm). Once you have seen a flying May bug you won’t forget it; especially if one gets caught in your electric fly killer! M. melolontha (Linnaeus, 1758) [5] A cockchafer stew is referred to in W. G. Sebald's novel The Emigrants. [6] Nikola Tesla recalls that as a child he made one of his first "inventions"—an "engine" made by harnessing four cockchafers in this fashion.[7]. These grubs, or larvae, live underground for up to four years, digging themselves in deeper during frost. It has characteristic fanned antennae, a black body, and brown legs and wingcases. Cockchafers have a voracious appetite and were considered a major problem for agriculture. In Ancient Greece, it is described as a common practice for boys to catch a Cockchafer, tie a linen thread to its feet and then enjoy it flying in circles. Instead they use biological methods – adding pathogenic fungi or nematodes to the soil, which will kill May bug grubs. (All of these are Scarabaeidae, have white grubs, and are turf pests.). The cockchafer should not be confused with the similar European chafer (Rhizotrogus majalis), which has a completely different life cycle, nor with the June beetles (Phyllophaga spp. The way many pest controllers have traditionally dealt with this problem is to just use more and more chemicals, but we’ve worked hard at trying to effectively target pesticides to reduce their usage and started to use traditional and environmentally responsible methods. ), which are native to North America, nor with the summer chafer (or "European June bug", Amphimallon solstitiale), which emerges in June and has a two-year life cycle. The name "cockchafer"[8] derives from late 17th century usage of "cock"[9] (in the sense of expressing size or vigour) + "chafer"[10] which simply means an insect of this type, referring to its propensity for gnawing and damaging plants. A similar game is reported in Victorian England, when children would stick a pin through a wing to create a similar effect. It is a clumsy flier and makes a buzzing sound. Because of environmental and public health concerns (pesticides may enter the food chain and thus also the human body) many chemical pesticides have been phased out in the European Union and worldwide. The male uses these antennae to detect pheromones, meaning he can find a mate even in the dark. However, as people started to understand the dangers of pesticides – residues entering the food-chain and insect resistance – and usage has decreased, the numbers have slowly recovered. The adult cockchafers emerge in the autumn but remain underground asleep until the late spring, when they spread their transparent wings and stagger off into the evening air. Their grubs are even more dangerous. In the past, Cockchafers were numerous around Europe – in 1911, 20 million individuals were collected from an 18km-squared piece of woodland. French recipes exist from the 19th century, giving instructions on how to make Cockchafer soup and in 1920s Germany, the newspaper, Fulda, reported children eating sugar-coated Cockchafers. This was considered a major problem. The cockchafer overwinters in the earth at depths between 20 and 100 cm. Pommerland ist abgebrannt The cockchafer is featured in a German children's rhyme similar to the English Ladybird, Ladybird: Maikäfer flieg... But its counterpart in North America, the May beetle, often does great damage to strawberry plants and cornfields. They have only one good use, and that is as fish bait. However, since pest control was increasingly regulated in the 1980s, its numbers have started to grow again. Maikäfer flieg! (Similar animal trials also occurred for many other animals in the Middle Ages.)[4]. The Cockchafer has long been a source of fascination for children. Apart for the danger of ‘collateral damage’, we can’t always guarantee only the pest insects will take the bait, using the wrong amounts of many chemicals will just lead to a tolerance build-up in the pest. Both have a brown colour. In recent years, the cockchafer's numbers have been increasing again, causing damage to over 1,000 km2 of land all over Europe. The common cockchafer is the UK's largest scarab beetle (scarabs include dung beetles and chafers). The Italian – specifically Neapolitan – collection of stories Il Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile (in its English translation by Norman M. Penzer from Benedetto Croce's Italian) contains a tale on Day 3, Night 5: "The Cockchafer, Mouse and Grasshopper". Only with the modernization of agriculture in the 20th century and the invention of chemical pesticides did it become possible to effectively combat the cockchafer. Male cockchafers have seven "leaves" on their antennae, whereas the females have only six. In the Middle Ages, pest control was rare, and people had no effective means to protect their harvest. What do cockchafer beetles look like? The destructive cockchafer grub (next to bottom) can be seen in February by. The Royal Navy has had four HMS Cockchafers in its history and before that hired another eight-gun lugger named Cockchafer. They were once very abundant: in 1911, more than 20 million individuals were collected in 18 km2 of forest. Your father is at war You can read more detail in our cookie policy to help you decide. By the 1970s, some areas had seen their populations nearly extinct. It has been a strange start to the year. In 1320, for instance, cockchafers were brought to court in Avignon and sentenced to withdraw within three days onto a specially designated area, otherwise they would be outlawed. When they didn’t leave, apparently no-one thought to translate the court-ruling into Cockchaferese, there were collected and killed. The species M. pectoralis looks similar, but its pygidium is rounded. With its rusty-brown wing cases, pointed 'tail' and fan-like antennae it is unmistakeable. This handsome chap is the Common cockchafer, also referred to as the May bug, the Spang beetle or the Billy witch. Pomerania is burned to the ground M. hippocastani Fabricius, 1801 The presence of swarms of cockchafers gives warning that nearby their grubs are probably just below the surface of the soil. Various species of beetle in the genus Melolontha, Other names include bracken clock, bummler, chovy, cob-worm, dorrs, dumbledarey, humbuz, June bug, kittywitch, billy witch, may-bittle, midsummer dor, mitchamador, oak-wib, rookworm, snartlegog, spang beetle, tom beedel and, "7 things you never knew about the cockchafer", Verfluchte Kreaturen: Lichtenbergs "Proben seltsamen Aberglaubens" und die Logik der Hexen- und Insektenverfolgung im "Malleus Maleficarum", http://www.bugsfeed.com/cooking_cockchafer, "Peter Parley's annual: A Christmas and New Year's present for young people", https://www.etymonline.com/word/cockchafer, https://www.etymonline.com/word/cock?ref=etymonline_crossreference#etymonline_v_15750, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cockchafer&oldid=986227897, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with German-language sources (de), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 30 October 2020, at 15:42.

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