I found this handsome brute of a beetle crawling through my train carriage this morning. You can just see First Capital Connect's lovely seat fabric on the right. At 30mm long and very heavily built, I imagine this Cockchafer (for that is what it is) would have scared the beejesus out of some commuters, but I coaxed it onto some paper so I could lift it up and get a good photo. Then I freed it through the window.
This next picture is a bit blurry but shows some key features rather well when seen in profile: the very fat body; the white sawtooth pattern peeking out from under the wing cases; the pointy pygidium; the antennae with fans of leaves.
Looking for the buffet , perhaps ?
What a great find! All I ever come across on trains is someone else’s litter…..
Did the seats closest to you magically empty while you were “playing” with the bug?
This may be hard to believe, but the carriage was mostly empty when I got on. Maybe it had already eaten the other passengers.
What an amazing discovery. He looks like an art nouveau brooch. Though if he’d landed on my table that wouldn’t have been my first thought.
That is a magnificent creature. I remember being in a bedroom in Minehead in the late 60s and more than twenty of them came in through the open window, being a teenager I was rather frightened.