Forest cockchafer
The forest cockchafer is a big brown beetle that buzzes around trees on spring evenings. The boys have fancy feelers that open like little fans. With them they can smell the girls from far away.
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Fun facts
The grubs live underground for 3 to 5 years before they turn into beetles.
The beetles come out between late April and the end of June.
The boys' feelers have seven big flaps, while the girls' have only six smaller ones.
It lives further north than its cousin, the common cockchafer, or high up in mountain woods.
Its tail tip is black. That is how you can tell it from the common cockchafer, whose tail tip is red.
Most asked questions about Forest cockchafer
?What does a forest cockchafer eat?
The grubs eat rotting bits and plant roots in the soil. Lots of them can harm trees.
?When can you see forest cockchafers?
In late spring, from the end of April to the end of June, flying in the evening.
?How big is a forest cockchafer?
It is about 2 to 3 centimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Melolontha hippocastani
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Northern cockchafer
Where the facts come from
- Melolontha hippocastani (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Syrio. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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