NATURE FOCUS CHAFERS
THE common name chafer is used in the names of several insects such as cockchafer, rose chafer, garden chafer and many more which belong to the Scarabaeidae family of beetles.
The derivation of the name chafer is from “ceafor” which is old English for “beetle.
Cock chafers are widely distributed throughout the UK and can be encountered flying around in the evening emitting a loud buzzing noise.
Their attraction to light results in them colliding noisily into windows. They are 25–30 mm in length and brown in colour. Like a number of beetles, they have elaborately branched antennae and males can be distinguished by the seven “leaves” on its antennae, compared to six on the females.
These antennae are used to detect female pheromones which enable the males to find a mate. Females have a sharp point at the tip of their abdomens, known as pygidium, which they use to push their eggs deep into the soil. The adult insects only live for around six weeks laying up to 80 eggs in June/july. The larvae are white, comma-shaped with brown heads and three pairs of legs on the front body segments and can spend up to three years underground feeding on roots and tubers prior to pupating; this stage can be longer in colder climates.
The larvae are known as “rookworms” as they are a favourite food of rooks and other corvids. The adult beetles emerge in the spring and feed on leaves and flowers.
They can cause alarm to some people due to their large size, the loud buzzing sound they make when flying coupled with their habit of crashing into windows, but they pose no threat to human health and are totally harmless.
Nikola Tesla, the inventor and electrical engineer who was responsible for inventing the alternating current (A/C) electrical system mentions in his autobiography “My Inventions” that one of his first as a boy was to make a motor powered by four cockchafers he had harnessed by tying thread around their legs!
The common cockchafer, Melolontha melolontha, was once very abundant but as their larvae are considered an agricultural pest and can be very destructive of crops they were almost eradicated by the intensive use of pesticides in the mid-20th century. However, due to improved pesticide regulation they have been making a comeback since the 1980s.
Rose chafers, Cetonia aurata, are large, broad beetles, 14-21mm long that are found in grassland, scrub, and along woodland edges. They are metallic coppery-green with small, creamy-white streaks on its wing cases. The adults feed on flowers, particularly Dog Roses, during the summer and autumn, and can often be spotted in warm, sunny weather.
The larvae feed on decaying leaves, plants, and roots, living in the soil for several years as they develop. When they pupate, they hibernate in the soil or in rotting wood over winter, ready to emerge as adults the following spring.
Garden chafers, Phyllopertha horticola are smaller beetles between 7 to 12mm long.
They have shiny dark green or bluish and occasionally black heads, thorax and legs with light brown wing cases (elytra). They can often be seen in gardens as they feed on the leaves of fruit trees and on flowers.
41% of insect species face extinction due to habitat loss and overuse of pesticides are major reasons why these little creatures are dying out eight times faster than large mammals.
However, it is not too late and with your help, we can put insects into recovery. Download your action pack at https://www. nottinghamshirewildlife.org/ action-for-insects