Monster in the garden !

[ed_pete]

Stag beetle sunning itself on the garden wall !

(Yes I know they are protected)

 

[Jules-and-Boo]

very nice pic!

[Saffron]

A gentle giant! xx

[bonniebird]

WoW! great pic!

[aerie]

is he not handsome ? devil's coachman

[Peckhamrye]

Fabulous.

[uncleglen]

Fantastic....the first time I saw one of those it was flying straight at my front room open window- my wife screamed so loud that my sister fell off her chair...it flew almost vertically

[jimmah]

I love these.

[DulwichFox]

Great picture..

..But these creatures really freak me out as do most beetles..

Foxy

[Jeremy]

Handsome indeed, but would shit myself if I saw one in the house (not so bad in the garden).

I saw a vid on youtube a while ago, of some idiot who let one of these things "bite" his tongue. Unsurprisingly, it hurt.

[aerie]

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Fantastic....the first time I saw one of those it

> was flying straight at my front room open window-

> my wife screamed so loud that my sister fell off

> her chair...it flew almost vertically

ha ha this reminded me of the first time I encountered one, when we lived in the countryside near Windsor, townies transplanted,

I opened the front door in the evening, and one was coming towards me at a level with my face. I screamed and closed the door. What else you gonna do?? Maybugs, the locals called them. They are like little whirring black barrels in flight.

[titch juicy]

I rescued one from near certain death as it decided to stop and have a rest in the middle of our road.

I'm sure i read that this part of London is one of the main global sites for stag beetles. Did I get that right?

[uncleglen]

Before you manicure your garden to within an inch of its life

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/stag-beetle

[KidKruger]

Cute beetles, used to be loads where I grew up on South Coast. You can pick em up they don't really hurt you - though there's no point putting your finger in their jaws to find out.

[tomskip]

That is an amazing picture. When my son was a very young baby, he was sitting on the kitchen floor one day while I was getting his older sister into the high chair for her breakfast, when I noticed him picking something up from the kitchen floor and, as all babies do, making immediate moves to put it in his mouth. I thought I'd better just check what it was ... glad I did, it was one of these monsters with all its nippy limbs waving. Have rarely moved so fast!

[redjam]

The London Wildlife Trust is inviting people to report any sightings of stag beetles. This is from their latest newsletter:

Have you spotted a stag beetle? London Wildlife Trust is asking everyone to report their sightings of this globally-endangered species.

Despite stag beetles being in steep decline across Europe, London remains a hotspot and the Trust is asking the public to report their sightings, to help researchers map their whereabouts and numbers.

May is the start of the ?stag beetle season?, which lasts until late July, although a cold spring can delay emergence. The males fly clumsily with a faint clattering whirr, and are most likely to be seen on sultry summer evenings an hour or two before dusk. The females lack the males? antlers and tend to stick to the ground, waiting for the males to come to them. Stag beetles spend most of their lives as larvae (grubs) within dead wood such as tree stumps and logs, where they spend 4-7 years slowly growing in size.

To learn more about London?s stag beetles and to report your sightings visit wildlondon.org.uk/stag-beetle-survey