Monday 11 March 2013

Life of a Chaefer Beetle

Today I removed part of a lawn, and found many Chaefer Beetle larvae under the lawn.  In Vancouver, the Chaefer Beetle is currently about 1/2" in diameter.  Like most beetle larvae, the Chaefer Beetle larvae is creamy white with a black head.  

The lawn that I dug up had strong roots, so the Chaefer Beetle larvae were safe from crows and raccoons.

The Chafer Beetle likes laying eggs in the dense root of lawns.  The eggs are in the lawn, and when they hatch, the larvae feed on the roots of the grass.  When they mature, the Chaefer Beetles fly into the air, get jiggy with each other, and then fly back down to the ground to lay eggs.

Last year in Vancouver, I counted three cycles of Chaefer Beetle life between spring and autumn.  I counted the cycles by counting how many times I saw lawns dug up by crows and raccoons.  An observational analysis more than a scientific study.

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