Common Cockchafer
Fast Facts
Latin name: Melolontha melolontha
Notable feature: Large brown beetle with feathered antennae, often seen flying.
Conservation Status: Not Evaluated
Where in the UK: Widespread across England and Wales, with more scattered populations in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Common across Europe as well.
Common Cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha) © Zoe Foster
The Common Cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha) is the UK’s largest scarab beetle. They are also known by May Bug, Maybeetle, Doodlebug, the Spang Beetle and the Billy Witch. Alongside their rusty brown colour and distinctive antenna, Common Cockchafers can be identified by their apparently clumsy flying abilities and the deep buzzing sound they produce while flying.
This beetle’s impressive antennae are used to detect pheromones, enabling males to find females, even in the dark! You can tell male and female Common Cockchafers apart by counting the number of ‘leaves’ on their remarkable antler-like antennae. Males sport seven ‘leaves’, while females have six.
They can be found in a wide variety of habitats although they prefer grassland.
- Size: Around 35mm/3.5cm.
- Life span: As larvae, 3-5 years. As an adult, only six weeks.
- Diet: As a grub, the Common Cockchafer feeds on roots and tubers. As adults, they eat flowers and leaves.
- Reproduction: Life begins as an egg laid around June – July, hatching into a white grub (larva) which lives underground. Grubs can spend 3 years underground (up to 5 years in colder climates) until they pupate. As grubs, they munch on roots and tubers until they reach around 4cm. This is the point when they pupate, emerging as an adult beetle (or imago) in the spring. They live as adults for a mere six weeks, during which time the female can lay as many as 80 eggs.
- When to see: These beetles usually appear around late April – early May until July and can frequently be seen and heard flying into lit windows and even lamps indoors!
- Population Trend: Probably declining in the UK.
- Threats: Pesticides and herbicides, the loss and fragmentation of wildflower-rich grassland.
- Interesting Fact: Due to their reputation as an “agricultural nuisance”, Common Cockchafers have been subject to unkind treatment for hundreds of years. In 1911, more than 20 million Common Cockchafer individuals were collected in 18 km² of forest and killed. Another, less conventional, approach was taken during 1320, when the cockchafers (as a species) were taken to court in Avignon, where they were ordered to leave town and relocate to a specially designated area, or be outlawed. All cockchafers who failed to comply were collected and killed. Both adults and grubs have even been considered a delicacy at times and are still eaten in some countries.
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