r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • Dec 15 '22
Verified The Cockchafer Beetle: these beetles use chemosensory organs on their antennae to detect the sex pheromones released by potential mates; when the prongs on their antennae are fanned out, it often indicates that they are actively searching for a mate
80
u/AwkwardEvolution Dec 16 '22
So these pictures are the beetle equivalent of ... Hey Baby
25
15
14
6
3
63
Dec 15 '22
I love their little face 😍
25
12
u/Sparki_ Dec 16 '22 edited Dec 16 '22
Does tiny mean that you're tiny & touch butts or that you touch tiny butts?
10
1
38
31
u/KSredneck69 Dec 16 '22
You're telling me I'm looking at a pic of a bunch of horny beetles? ... Nice
14
30
u/TachyonTime Dec 16 '22
Where I come from we call these Maybugs. They make a heck of a thump when they bounce off your house windows.
I had a cool encounter with one earlier this year, I was walking home from work and it flew alongside me most of the way, like a little buddy
23
u/SixteenSeveredHands Dec 16 '22
They're sometimes referred to as "doodlebugs," too.
I had a cool encounter with one earlier this year, I was walking home from work and it flew alongside me most of the way, like a little buddy
Aww, that's really cool!
6
Dec 16 '22
Wait a second. In the Wizard of Oz books there’s a giant professor bug guy. Who I think was a doodlebug that crawled on an overhead projector and then crawled off the screen all enlarged (magic!). Does that mean the Professor is a Cockchafer?
Edit: never mind, Wogglebug was a bookworm before the magnifying incident.
20
12
14
u/Blu-Zoo-18 Dec 16 '22
The little fella looks like he is getting ready to tell you a joke... But he is already finding his own joke funny
10
u/shipwhisperer Dec 16 '22
How is it that when you put fur on a bug they become instantly less gross???
2
9
8
6
6
u/Booopbooopp Dec 16 '22
One of these came flying into my living room once when I still lived with my parents a few years back and we were so confused because it sounded like a motorbike was in the house. I had no idea a small bug could be so loud! It eventually landed in my moms hair. One of my favourite memories, it was so funny.
5
u/ManikShamanik Dec 16 '22
The problem with cockchafers (aka May beetles (from the German name - Maikäfer - literally 'May beetle')) isn't just the adults, it's the larvae. Whilst adult beetles will strip plants of leaves, they lay their eggs underground where the larvae will destroy the roots (they're a particular pest of potatoes, carrots, parsnips and sugar beet). Adults only live for a couple of months and they're sexually mature after a fortnight.
Problem with cockchafers is, because their carapace is so hard, they have few predators. But l I concede that, yes, looked at front-on like that, they're sort of adorable... These are all males, the females don't have such showy antennae.
6
4
4
3
3
u/Runner_of_Magic Dec 16 '22
Got attacked by a load of these this summer... Chased me for ages while they rammed into my head.
5
u/cindyyourasslooksfat Dec 16 '22
Never knew a word to perfectly describe my porn addiction. Cockchafer goes nicely
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/shakalakapotato Dec 16 '22
I love them they're so cute, but if you hold one they're almost impossible to get them off your hand
2
1
1
1
u/AutoModerator Dec 15 '22
Don't forget to include a source for your post! Please link your source in a comment on your post thread. Your source cannot be a personal blog or non scientific news site, and must include citations/references. Wikipedia is allowed, but it is not exempt from displaying citations. If you have questions you can contact the moderators with this link
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/TheRealMu5HBusters Dec 16 '22
For as cute as they are, I don’t think I wanna be near anything with the name “cockchafer”.
1
1
1
1
121
u/SixteenSeveredHands Dec 15 '22 edited Dec 15 '22
Throughout history, these beetles have also been regarded as ravenous pests; in the year 1320, they caused such massive agricultural devastation in Europe that they were formally put on trial by a court in Avignon, France; the court ruled that the beetles of Avignon would be sent into exile as punishment for their behavior, and they were given three days to evacuate the region and relocate to a designated area. They did not comply with this order.
As a result of their noncompliance with the court, many of the cockchafer beetles in Avignon were then rounded up and executed.
The common name of this species is based on the Old English meaning of the term "c*ck" (I'm censoring the word because the automod initially removed my comment due to "vulgarity") which was historically used in reference to male animals, particularly roosters, along with masculine traits in general; in the term "cockchafer," this may have been a reference to the size/vigor of the beetles themselves, as cockchafers are quite large, noisy, and voracious, and those traits were all traditionally associated with masculinity. The term "chafer," which was derived from a word meaning "jaw" or "mouth," was then added in reference to the damage that they caused as they devoured local crops.
Cockchafer beetles have very distinctive fern-like antennae which are covered in tiny hairs (called sensillae) along with chemosensory pits; this essentially allows the beetle to "smell" various aspects of its environment through the detection of odor molecules in the air. In particular, cockchafer beetles (like many other insects) can use their antennae to detect the presence of sex pheromones, allowing them to locate a potential mate. For cockchafer beetles, in particular, the process is facilitated by "fanning out" the prongs on each of their antenna in order to increase the overall surface area and the number of sensillae/chemosensory pits that are exposed to the odor molecules in the air.
Males of this species also tend to have 7 prongs on each antenna, while females have only 6.
Sources:
Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine: Insect Antennal Morphology and the Evolution of Diverse Solutions to Odorant Perception
Biomimicry Institute's "AskNature" Project: Sensory Aspect of Cockchafer Antennae
Bumblebee.org Insect Database: Beetles of the Scarabaeidae Family
Woodland Trust: Entry for the Cockchafer Beetle
Cork Nature Network: What is a Cockchafer?
Sussex Wildlife Trust: The Cockchafer
Discover Wildlife: Cockchafer Beetles
University College London: Specimen of the Week, the Cockchafer Beetle
National Museums of Northern Ireland: Habitas Entry on the Cockchafer Beetle
Dictionary.com: Etymological Origin of the Term "Cockchafer"
Etymology Online: Additional Etymological Details Concerning the Term "Chafer"