Good old May bug - what lies behind a harmless appearance?

In the midst of spring, when the gardens intensively gather greenery and bloom, the evening air suddenly fills a low rumble, as if small bombers are flying. This May bug comes out after wintering, so that, breaking off the ground, find its soul mate, leave offspring and complete the earthly journey. A large beautiful insect in a velvet camisole, with a luxurious bristly mustache, flying contrary to the laws of aerodynamics, is still a mystery to scientists. Not everyone knows that a handsome beetle and a vile translucent khrobak larva, which has earned a reputation as the worst garden pest, are the same thing, only at different stages of development.

The place of the may bug in the kingdom of insects

The second name of the hero of today's conversation is May Khrushchev. The winged insect belongs to the Lamellar family, the Khrushchei subfamily, of which there are more than 5.7 thousand species on the planet.
Despite its impressive appearance, it is a pest, it poses the greatest threat to deciduous and mixed forests, but it does not disdain cultivated fruit and berry trees. Even more dangerous is the larva, which is popularly called a hrobak, a furrow. Depending on the habitat of the May beetle, it, gnawing the root system, destroys young forest plantations, crops, garden crops, seedlings.

The range of distribution of various types of Khrushchev is Europe and Asia, wherever forests are abundant. In Russia, the insect is found from Arkhangelsk to Yakutsk, but prefers the center and the south of the European part, Siberia.

The appearance and structure of an adult insect

Consider what the May bug looks like, having gone through the full cycle of transformation and reaching puberty.

This is a large barrel-shaped insect reaching a length of 2–3.5 cm. The recognizable color is red-brown, but depending on the species, habitat, the shades of the shell vary from brown to black. The head and pronotum are covered with light dense villi. The hard elytra forms a hard chitinous shell that protects the soft flying wings, chest and abdomen of the imago.

The structure of the May bug is the same as that of other insects of the order of the Winged-winged.

1. The head is small, with the body connected semi-mobile. The convex eyes of the facet type stand out clearly on it. They have a large viewing angle, allow you to distinguish colors, perceive the slightest flickering of objects. Another notable detail is the plate mustache, similar to brushes and acting as antennas.
2. The bug’s mouth is gnawing, as an adult eats, eating young foliage.
3. The chest consists of 3 segments, 2 pairs of wings are attached to the second and third of them. Rigid velvety elytra have a protective function. A bug flies with a pair of delicate, transparent wings that look like dragonflies.
4. A pair of legs is attached to each thoracic segment, total - 6. They consist of segments and end with claws, with the help of which the grains cling to branches of shrubs and trees.
5. The abdomen completes the body of the insect, soft, covered with a dense, dense hair.

Note! Reproduction in Khrushchev bisexual. In size, the female May beetle is slightly larger than the male.

Life cycle features

Khrushchev refers to insects with a complete transformation. It is noteworthy that their life cycle is 4–5 years, of which no more than 3 months are allocated directly to the life of the beetle, and the “flying” phase is even less - 30–40 days. There are 4 stages of development of the May beetle.

• Egg. Embryo development lasts up to 1.5 months.
• Larva. The longest period of life of the horsetail is 3-4 years.
• Dolly. Pupation lasts 1.5–2 months.
• Imago Young individuals crawl out of the soil in the spring for 1-2 months, after which they die.

Consider the features of the development of May beetles at each stage of the life cycle.

Sexually Mature (Adult)

From the chrysalis, the raspberries appear, as a rule, by the end of the summer. But young adults do not come to the surface, winter in the soil. The main instinct calls them to the surface in the spring of next year, when the sun warms the earth well, and young foliage blossoms on the trees - the predominant food base of the insect. The chafer beetle emerges from the soil, rushes to the trees and begins to eat off after the winter.

After about a week, active years begin in search of sexual partners, and after mating, females begin to lay eggs. To do this, they several times (3-4) are buried in the soil, laying a total of up to 70 eggs. Heaps of embryos, 25–30 pieces each, are located in the fertile soil layer, no deeper than 10–20 cm. This is important because the hatching larva eats only humus in the first year of life.

Having fulfilled the maternal (paternal) duty, the Khrushchev survive to a maximum until the first days of July, after which they die.

Interesting! Scientists are wondering why the May bug flies if it is contrary to physical laws. It is believed that before takeoff, the insect inflates the abdomen with air, turning into something between the “helicopter” and the “airship”.

Embryonic development

Since the eggs of a female khrushchik by the standards of insects lay a little, almost all of them survive, mature and give life to a new individual. Once in warm, loose, fertile soil, after 4-6 weeks, larvae appear from the embryos - small white C-shaped worms with translucent integuments.

Larval stage

Having learned how long the larva of the May beetle lives, you begin to understand why it is considered such a serious agricultural pest. The larval period lasts 3-4 years; after each season, the sowed hibac sheds, grows, and falls to a safe depth for wintering. This is how the life of the larva looks over the years.

1. In the first season after hatching, it is a harmless worm. It feeds on plant debris, humus. By the end of September, the hrobak is preparing for winter, digging 1.5–2 m. That is why it is useless to fight the larvae during the autumn digging - you simply will not find them.
2. At the second age, the larva of the May beetle does more harm, as her appetite increases and her jaw grows. She already has the roots of garden crops, immature seedlings.
3. After the second wintering, a full-fledged pest leaves, capable of gnawing plant roots no worse than a bear. Even young seedlings of shrubs and trees suffer from third-instar larvae.
4. In the fourth year (some species - in the fifth), the malicious activity of the larva ends quickly - somewhere in the beginning of summer. She pupates.

Pupation

In the pupal stage, the May beetle stays 1–2 months. And if the larva is mobile, voracious, the chrysalis, on the contrary, is completely immobilized, does not feed. A distinctive feature - through the pale yellow cover visible outlines of an adult beetle - legs, abdomen, head.

Young adults appear in August, but they do not come to the surface, and remain wintering at a depth of 20 to 40 cm.

Common species

On the territory of Russia there are 9 types of khrushch. The most common and harmful are two of them.

Western Mayhem or Beetle

This is a rather thermophilic species, it lives in the forest zone and forest-steppe of the European part of the continent, does not climb north of Smolensk and Moscow Region, east of Kursk and Voronezh you will not find it either. A distinctive feature of the insect is a black head and pronotum, light brown to red elytra. This beetle prefers to feast on deciduous plants, does not touch coniferous plantings. Fruit crops nearby are also hit.

Eastern May Khrushchev - a close fellow of the western species

The insect is found both in the European part and everywhere in Asia. It withstands the cold climate of the northern regions (reaches Arkhangelsk), the Urals, Siberia, and Transbaikalia. This type of beetle can be recognized by points on the head and pronotum, which are also lighter than in the western species, covered with long yellowish hairs. It is smaller in size - 20–29 mm. Favorite delicacy - young inflorescences of conifers (pine, larch, spruce), for lack of such, does not disdain deciduous plantings, garden crops.

Note! A four to five year cycle of development of May beetles is manifested in the frequency of insect infestations. In the summer years, they crawl out from the soil in clouds and literally hang in clusters of trees. After the next 4–5 years, the lulls of the raids of the snacks are repeated.

Diet of adults and larvae

By the way the May beetle and its voracious larva feed, it is possible to determine the extent of potential harmfulness.

Adult adults first of all attack oak and birch groves, gnaw fruit tree inflorescences (plums, cherries), damage walnuts, hazelnuts, and apple trees. In the summer years, any plantations are attacked - linden, alder, poplar, beech, acacia. Coniferous plantations are an exception for western gherkins, but they are preferred by the eastern species of insect.

What plant organs damage the May beetles? Since the years fall in May, young apical shoots, earrings of alder, birch, pine, spruce, inflorescences and the ovary of fruit and berry crops are most affected. In addition to the beloved plums and cherries, grapes, honeysuckle, hazel, rosehips fall into the field of view of Khrushchev. The invasions of khrushch bring great damage to nurseries, since they are able to gnaw and destroy young seedlings completely.

The larva is even more omnivorous - it gnaws at any roots encountered on the path, whether it be young seedlings, grassy crops, cereals, root crops, seedlings of garden crops. Moreover, if the active period of khrushchev does not exceed 1.5 months, then the hrobak harms all summer.

I wonder if the May bug can be beneficial? As far as it is known, only the avid fishermen appreciated the worth of the khrushcha, or rather its larvae. Such a bait perfectly pecks bream, chub, ide, perch. It is not difficult to dig up the larvae in the spring - they rise to the top layer of the soil, hide in compost, humus.

Interesting facts about the life of the May beetle: