Turning a compost heap the other day I discovered 44 stag beetle larvae.
Needless to say I put them back safely, I hope.
This is the most I have ever seen of this in one heap. Anyone else come
across this ?
Jim

Jim Paterson wrote:
Turning a compost heap the other day I discovered 44 stag beetle
larvae. Needless to say I put them back safely, I hope.
This is the most I have ever seen of this in one heap. Anyone else
come across this ?
Jim

Tell your local Wildlife Trust.
They will be very interested.
Can I presume that you are in southern England?

--
ned

"Jim Paterson" wrote in message
...
Turning a compost heap the other day I discovered 44 stag beetle larvae.
Needless to say I put them back safely, I hope.
This is the most I have ever seen of this in one heap. Anyone else come
across this ?
Jim

Educate me if you'll be so kind. What do stag beetle larvae look like? I am
in southern England and I'd like to know in case I've got any.

Steve.

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...

"Jim Paterson" wrote in message
...
Turning a compost heap the other day I discovered 44 stag beetle larvae.
Needless to say I put them back safely, I hope.
This is the most I have ever seen of this in one heap. Anyone else come
across this ?
Jim

Educate me if you'll be so kind. What do stag beetle larvae look like? I am
in southern England and I'd like to know in case I've got any.
Steve.

http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/larva.html
Jenny

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 19:39:05 +0100, JennyC wrote:

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...

"Jim Paterson" wrote in message
...
Turning a compost heap the other day I discovered 44 stag beetle larvae.
Needless to say I put them back safely, I hope.
This is the most I have ever seen of this in one heap. Anyone else come
across this ?
Jim

Educate me if you'll be so kind. What do stag beetle larvae look like? I am
in southern England and I'd like to know in case I've got any.
Steve.

http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/larva.html
Jenny

Apart from the little rattle they do, and the sort of elongated tip to the
abdobmen, they look remarkable similar to loads of other beetle larvae.
Especially cockchafer. I'll look more closely at by beetle grubs next time,
just in case.
--
Tim.

If the human brain were simple enough that we could understand it, we would
be so simple that we couldn't.

Jim

Try contacting the People's Trust for Endangered Speceies (PTES) I know they
had a survey on stag beetles in 1998 and 2002.
People's Trust for Endangered Species
15 Cloisters House,
8 Battersea Park Road
London SW8 4BG
Tel. 020 7498 4533
Fax. 020 7498 4459

Email.

John Pearce

"Jim Paterson" wrote in message
...
Turning a compost heap the other day I discovered 44 stag beetle larvae.
Needless to say I put them back safely, I hope.
This is the most I have ever seen of this in one heap. Anyone else come
across this ?
Jim

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...

"Jim Paterson" wrote in message
...
Turning a compost heap the other day I discovered 44 stag beetle
larvae.
Needless to say I put them back safely, I hope.
This is the most I have ever seen of this in one heap. Anyone else
come
across this ?
Jim

Educate me if you'll be so kind. What do stag beetle larvae look like? I
am
in southern England and I'd like to know in case I've got any.
Steve.

http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/larva.html
Jenny

Thanks for that Jenny, I checked it out, but as someone lse has said, they
do look remarkably similar to other larvae. Are they much bigger than
others, or is there a reliable way to differentiate?

TIA

Steve

The message m
from Tim Challenger "timothy(dot)challenger(at)apk(dot)at" contains
these words:
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 19:39:05 +0100, JennyC wrote:
"shazzbat" wrote in message
...
"Jim Paterson" wrote in message
...

Turning a compost heap the other day I discovered 44 stag beetle larvae.
Needless to say I put them back safely, I hope.
This is the most I have ever seen of this in one heap. Anyone else come
across this ?

In a compost heap? Their habitat is in large lumps of rotten timber.

Educate me if you'll be so kind. What do stag beetle larvae look
like? I am
in southern England and I'd like to know in case I've got any.
Steve.

http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/larva.html
Jenny

Apart from the little rattle they do, and the sort of elongated tip to the
abdobmen, they look remarkable similar to loads of other beetle larvae.
Especially cockchafer. I'll look more closely at by beetle grubs next time,
just in case.

If you come across a big white maggot the size of your thumb, and it has
a rather bulbous tail-end and well-developed mandibles on a
mahogany-coloured head, you almost certainly have a stag beetle larva.

--
Rusty Hinge