The beginning of May signifies the absolute end of winter, when spring is in full force and in theory we don’t have to worry about a cold snap for a long time (British weather oddities aside).
But it also means the emergence of the cockchafer. These beetles, known as “may bugs”, only live for about five to seven weeks, assuring their association with the brilliant time of year that is late spring and early summer. How else would you explain all these inspirational contributions it has made to throughout Europe?
Cockchafer Inspires Science in Ancient Greece
In ancient Greece, young boys would spin cockchafers as a game. They would tie a thread to a may bug’s leg, then let it loose and watch it fly in circles.
Aristotle was even inspired to pretty much invent entomology after observing the cockchafer, amongst other insects. In his collected writings on the subject, he notes:
Some insects are wingless (as the ioulos and the millipede), other winged (as the bee, the cockchafer, and the wasp); and sometimes one and the same kind of insect is found both winged and wingless (as the ant and the glowworm) Translation Peck, 1970
May Bug Contributes to Popular Culture in 17th-Century Germany
The may bug also features in a German children’s rhyme dating from the Thirty Years’ War:
Maikäfer flieg.
Dein Vater ist im Krieg.
Die Mutter ist im Pommerland,
Pommerland ist abgebrannt.
Maikäfer flieg.
Which translates to:
May-bug fly
Your father is in the war.
The mother is in Pomerania,
Pomerania is burned down.
May-bug fly.
Because it was about Pomeranian suffering from war, it became associated with Russia’s advance on Eastern Germany at the end of World War II.
The May Bug and Philosophy in Enlightenment-Age France
Voltaire also made reference to the cockchafer back in the 18th century, saying:
Before receiving your instruction, I must tell you what happened to me one day. I had just had a closet built at the end of my garden. I heard a mole arguing with a cockchafer; ‘Here’s a fine structure,’ said the mole, ‘it must have been a very powerful mole who did this work.’ ‘You’re joking,’ said the cockchafer; ‘it’s a cockchafer full of genius who is the architect of this building.’ From that moment I resolved never to argue.
The May Bug in Folk Art in 19th-Century Prussia
Tthe may bug also features in Max and Moritz (A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks), a rhyming tale of mischevious boys that is engrained in the culture of German-speaking countries. In the fifth of their seven pranks, the boys shake may bugs out of a tree and sprinkle them in their Uncle Fritz’s bed. Nice!
The Cockchafer and Literature in Nineteenth-Century Denmark
In Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina, a may bug is one of the many creatures that captures Thumbelina after she escapes from the toad that originally kidnapped her. The bug abandons her to the elements, when his friends reject her.
So, although may bugs aren’t around for long, there is clearly a lot you can do with them while they are here. Or you could just have fun watching them, knowing that with them comes great weather, fun holidays and all the wonderful things we associate with Spring and Summer!
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5 Comments
Really great post – thanks! Considering I had never even heard of a cockchafer before I started working in the pest control industry. Cockchafer – very odd name, isn’t it? no wonder it is better known as the May bug.
All very well? but what are you supposed to do about it then?
Cockchafers are nocturnal and attracted to light, so try using yellow lighting outdoors if needed. Otherwise, they have short flight season so they wouldn’t be around very often. These are ancient bugs so I doubt they’re going anywhere (dating back to Cleopatra). They are adverse to chemicals as well. Just wait them out and they’ll go away.
Very interesting indeed. My grandmother used to sing “Maikaefer flieg” to me when I was a small kid. Liked the song. I am not sure about the UK, but if I remember right, we only used to get a major number of these beetles every four years. Sometimes we were collecting shoeboxes full of these beetles just for the fun of it (No need to worry though, we usually let them go after a few hours).
If I remember right we also used to distinguish between different colour variations. Let me see if I can recollect all of them: The rarest one was called the emperor, there were Millers as well (the wings had some dusty white coating on them)and chimney sweepers.
And then there are the Chocolate Cockchafers, which we used to get around Easter Holidays.
Very nice post!
Cockchafers are active at dusk, rather than truly nocturnal, and they fly towards light. The adults only fly for a few weeks of the year before the females lay eggs in soil where they hatch and remain there for two years or more eating plant roots.
They are not adverse to chemicals, in fact the use of agro-chemicals with the advent of industrial farming led to numbers of these insects falling dramatically over the twentieth century- apparently numbers are now recovering. However, the males have an impressive pair of antennae with seven ‘leaves’ that can detect pheromones from females in the dark.
Cockchafers have slow life cycles- up to 5 years in adverse conditions so they will have not been through as many generations in the last 100 years as other insects. There are references to them in ancient Greece. I like them, they may a humming noise when they fly.