What can you see hidden in this Choisya? As I walked towards the bush there must have been about 20 Rose Chafer beetles, many in flight around the bush and they flew away as I approached, but several stayed. I think I spotted 6 in this photo the last one being perhaps just the head and feelers protruding so not easy to see.
I have seen Rose Chafer beetles in the garden before but never quite so many at once so I am delighted that they seem to be thriving and multiplying year on year.
The first time I found one it was on the compost heap crawling so I didn't even realise it could fly and I assumed it was something like a dung beetle. Wrong.
Another year I saw them in flight - oh what clumsy insects they are and quite noisy as they pass by.
Once I discovered what they were thanks to Dr James Logan posting a photo on his twitter account
I did some research and realised that the grubs I had disposed of when potting on using my compost were probably the Larva. Since I have found many and carefully returned them to a suitable compost area. Clearly this has paid dividends this year.
I even found a mating pair.
They look rather precarious.
Such glorious colours.
Hidden in this photo I counted 5.
Here is Meg because it was her taking an interest in them on the bush that drew Mike's attention to them and in turn a request for me to leave my household chores and bring my camera into the garden.
Finding so many Rose Chafer beetles this year may be one of the bonuses of having an unkempt garden full of perfumed flowering plants.
I posted a couple of years ago showing Rose Chafer beetles on my roses
http://joanne-orangecottages.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/june-in-garden.html
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