(aka “May Bug”)Cockchafer

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The Love Life of the Cockchafers

A presentation by Georg GüntnerAugust 2014, SRFG-Academy

Fact FindingCockchafers are extremely perdurant (and endurant?)

4 to 4½ h duration of the mating

boredom dozing off nutrition falling down death

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Relevance for Culture & SocietyThe cockchafer is featured in several works of art

Wilhelm Busch:

5th trick of Max and Moritz

German children‘s rhyme

Cockchafer fly...

Your father is at war.

Your mother is in

Pomerania.

Pomerania is burned to the

ground.

Cockchafer fly!

Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maikäfer (originally: Wilhelm Busch: “Max und Moritz”)

Relevance for EconomyHistorical and contemporary plagues

1938: the Ministry in Schleswig-Holstein paid 5 Cent per kg (190.000 kg of bugs collected)

2014: mustard tested in the fight against the bugs in WeinviertelSource: © DPA

Take away messages

“The cockchafer (colloquially called May bug, mitchamador, billy witch, or spang beetle, particularly in East Anglia) is a European beetle of the genus Melolontha, in the family Scarabaeidae.” (en.wikipedia.org)

Cockchafers are extremely perdurant during their mating and periodically highly effective in reproduction (Andreas Kieling)

Cockchafers are both boon and bane: They inspire the fine arts (Wilhelm Busch) and

contribute to a prosperous development of our children („Cockchafer fly …“)

They periodically cause a lot of damage in agriculture, particularly in vineyards (use of pesticides and biological weapons)

Andreas Kieling: „Maikäfer können am längsten: Dem Liebesleben der Tiere auf der Spur“, Malik Verlag ISBN-13: 978-3890294186

References:

The Love Life of the Cockchafers

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