Sunday, 1 July 2007

Maybugs in July


Caught this little fella on the roof of our car - a cockchafer or maybug. They hatch every three years, and right now there's thousands of them around. They are night flyers; around dusk they take to the air around our house and fly with a low humming buzz. The look like small sandy-coloured flying kiwi fruit and bump into window (they are quite large and heavy). Although named popularly named 'maybugs', (after the month they hatch from the larvae that live under the soil for three years) they're still active into July. They will mate, leave their eggs in the soil, they die off in massive numbers (the one above was literally on his last legs).

No comments: