14 july 2024
The day gone by in my sister’s yard in Tidewater Virginia we watched a couple of hundred inexperienced beetles flying impulsively in broad circles over the grass. They moved so speedy that we couldn’t see their options however shall we inform they have been large, 1/2 to one inch lengthy. None people had ever observed this phenomenon earlier than.
I couldn’t establish the beetles till one landed within the grass and I noticed it via binoculars. I didn’t report this video however that is what I noticed.
An internet seek discovered an August 2023 document from WDBJ in Roanoke VA “You’ll be seeing extra glossy, inexperienced beetles this yr.” It known them as inexperienced June beetles (Cotinis nitida). They’re risk free to people.
Inexperienced June beetles are participants of the scarab beetle circle of relatives, similar because the dung beetles of Africa, sacred in Historic Egypt. Regardless that those are referred to as “June” beetles, July and August are the adults’ maximum lively time. Men fly round searching for women. Women fly low over the grass searching for a spot to put eggs. In order that’s what we have been seeing.
When the eggs hatch the larvae tunnel underground and emerge at evening to trip on their backs, waving their legs within the air. This seems like peculiar and dangerous habits.
North Carolina State Extension says the 3rd instars “produce a secretion that binds soil debris in combination and permits them to shape a protecting case during which they overwinter within the soil.” The beetles pupate and emerge as adults in the summertime.
Their filth ball jogs my memory of the dung beetle. The photograph presentations one open with pupa within.
Regardless that we noticed a large number of insects the day prior to this it won’t change into many down the street. The grubs have many predators so North Carolina State Extension’s residential advice is: “If there’s no indication of turf harm because of tunneling through the grubs, no motion is truly vital.”
Inexperienced June beetles happen in Pittsburgh, even in Schenley Park, even though no longer steadily (click on right here and right here to look two iNaturalist entires). I’ve by no means spotted their courtship habits in Pittsburgh.
Their prevalence map signifies that inexperienced June beetles are a lot more commonplace in Virginia.