Nature - Wild Life - Insect Life - Male cockchafers have seven "leaves" on their antennae, whereas the females have only six. Cockchafer feeds on deciduous plant and fruit tree leaves, including oaks, maple, sweet chestnut, beech, plum, and walnut trees. The feeding behaviour of larvae can cause severe damage to the plants. They feed on both the small roots of field plants such as grain, grass, tree, beet roots and the large part of crop rootlets. Larvae can gnaw the root for 30cm each day, which quickly kills the plant. They are considered pests, but they are a source of food for moles, and there are a lot of them in the forest. The European mole is a natural enemy of cockchafers. Moles are known to feed on cockchafer larvae. They can detect them using their keen sense of smell and specialised digging behaviour. This predation can help regulate cockchafer populations in mole-inhabited areas. Melolontha Melolontha adults are predated by ground beetles and ants. Larvae are predated by click beetles while underground. Starlings, crows, and gulls also predate Melolontha Melolontha larvae, often after a field has been plowed. Dexia rustica is a parasitic fly that uses Melolontha Melolontha larvae as their hosts. Dexica Rustica eggs hatch underground and look for cockchafer larvae to hibernate within over the winter. Their presence will ultimately kill the beetle larvae in the spring. One to six fly larva can parasites a single host.
25 апр 2024
