Thunderbugs are go!

by la_spice @ 2008-05-12 - 08:29:29

I wish they would (go that is!)

I found loads of these in my garden yesterday and hadn't a clue what they were. It seems that they are Musk Beetles "Aromia Moschata". Thanks to Rob (notbob) for identifying it. Here's more information:

The xylophagous larvae (literally "mangeuses of wood") develop on the willows, more rarely in the poplars and the alders. Several years are passed until the nymphose. The adults suck the sap of the willows, maples and birches. The name of the species comes from secretion, with the back of the lower part of the thorax, of substances of bases are drawn from the feeder plant and undergo a chemical conversion in glands. Because of systematic demolition of the old willows, the species with tendency to rarefy.

That explains my dead willow tree!!!

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NotBob [Member]
http://notbob562.webs.com/blog.htm
2008-05-12 @ 11:52

That's no thunderbug.
Thunderbugs are much smaller.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbug

It looks more like a musk beetle (Aromia moschata), a species of longhorn beetle belonging to the subfamily Cerambycinae, tribe Callichromatini.
Its name comes from the musky smell it emits.

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la_spice [Member]
2008-05-12 @ 12:32

Your right - just found it

http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Europe/France/photo16043.htm

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NotBob [Member]
http://notbob562.webs.com/blog.htm
2008-05-12 @ 14:14

My love of all things insectoid (apart from wasps - my thigh still hurts!) comes in handy every now and then.

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la_spice [Member]
2008-05-12 @ 15:06

I might need your help again then.

There's a shield shaped bug, green in colour that smells of almond when crushed - I think I found it's name once but be my guest! :))

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NotBob [Member]
http://notbob562.webs.com/blog.htm
2008-05-12 @ 15:13

Ooh! That's a challenge without a piccie. I'll see what I can come up with...

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NotBob [Member]
http://notbob562.webs.com/blog.htm
2008-05-12 @ 15:30

Do you have roses in your garden? If so it may be a rose chafer (Cetonia aurata).

The rose chafer is one of our larger and more attractive beetles. The upper surfaces are an iridescent emerald green and bronze colour. The underside is a bronze colour. There are ragged white marks running widthways across the wing casings which look like fine cracks.

Rose chafers are usually seen in sunny weather feeding on the petals of flowers - especially roses.

Or it could be the noble chafer (Gnorimus nobilis)

The noble chafer is a beautiful, iridescent green beetle, roughly the size of the first joint of a man’s forefinger. It is often confused with the rose chafer (Cetonia aura), but has wrinkled wing cases, unlike the smooth ones of the rose chafer. The noble chafer also has pale flecks on both its wing cases and thorax and has a distinct indentation between the thorax and wing cases.

The larvae of the noble chafer live inside old, decaying fruit trees in traditional orchards, where they take two years to develop into adult beetles.

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la_spice [Member]
2008-05-12 @ 16:43

No it's a shield bug

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/features/345feature1.shtml

We do see rose chafers too so it's good to put a name to them. Thanks for the info.

I think I might be turning into an anorak :))

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