14 July 2024
Yesterday in my sister’s yard in Tidewater Virginia we watched a couple of hundred inexperienced beetles flying quickly in vast circles over the grass. They moved so quick that we couldn’t see their options however we might inform they had been massive, 1/2 to 1 inch lengthy. None of us had ever seen this phenomenon earlier than.
I couldn’t establish the beetles till one landed within the grass and I noticed it by binoculars. I didn’t file this video however that is what I noticed.
An internet search discovered an August 2023 report from WDBJ in Roanoke VA “Chances are you’ll be seeing extra shiny, inexperienced beetles this yr.” It recognized them as inexperienced June beetles (Cotinis nitida). They’re innocent to people.
Inexperienced June beetles are members of the scarab beetle household, identical because the dung beetles of Africa, sacred in Historical Egypt. Although these are referred to as “June” beetles, July and August are the adults’ most energetic time. Males fly round searching for females. Females fly low over the grass on the lookout for a spot to put eggs. In order that’s what we had been seeing.
When the eggs hatch the larvae tunnel underground and emerge at evening to journey on their backs, waving their legs within the air. This appears like odd and dangerous conduct.
North Carolina State Extension says the third instars “produce a secretion that binds soil particles collectively and allows them to kind a protecting case through which they overwinter within the soil.” The beetles pupate and emerge as adults in the summertime.
Their grime ball jogs my memory of the dung beetle. The photograph reveals one open with pupa inside.
Although we noticed a variety of bugs yesterday it could not flip into many down the highway. The grubs have many predators so North Carolina State Extension’s residential advice is: “If there isn’t a indication of turf harm because of tunneling by the grubs, no motion is basically essential.”
Inexperienced June beetles happen in Pittsburgh, even in Schenley Park, although not usually (click on right here and right here to see two iNaturalist entires). I’ve by no means seen their courtship conduct in Pittsburgh.
Their incidence map signifies that inexperienced June beetles are way more frequent in Virginia.
