Cockchafer or Billy Witch from United Kingdom

bugman

May 25th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

Categories

beetle like bug with pincers and orange fan like antenna
Mon, May 25, 2009 at 12:36 PM
I found this insect in my back garden in England UK. I have never seen anything like this before. Its body length was about 1.5 inches long and It had very large wings. Its face looked see through with large black bulging eye and pincers.It looked like it had a face.it had a fury neck and a hard shell body. could you please let me know what insect this is. I would be very grateful.
Tanni Celep UK
Birmingham,England,Uk

Cockchafer

Hi Tanni,
Your beetle is a type of Scarab known as a Cockchafer, Melolontha melolontha, also known as a May Bug. According to David A Kendall on the Insect & Other Arthropods website: “Adult chafers eat the leaves and flowers of many deciduous trees, shrubs and other plants, but rarely cause any serious damage in the UK. “ According to the UK Safari website: “Cockchafers tend to swarm around trees and bushes, as they feed on the leaves. The wing cases of the adult beetles are covered in tiny grey hairs, giving them a dusty appearance. They’re quite clumsy in flight. Often colliding into things as they wobble about in the air. Their wings also make a loud buzzing sound.
The cockchafer has a three year life cycle. After mating the female digs down about 20cm into the soil to lay between 10 and 20 eggs. The eggs hatch after 21 days and the larvae remain in the soil for a further two years feeding on plant roots. … Cockchafers are sometimes called ‘May Bugs’ because of the month they appear. In Suffolk they’re also known as ‘Billy Witches’. “