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I know there are some knowledgable amateur entemologists on here, so can anyone help with the identification of this impressive little fella? My wife is worried he might invite all his mates to come and munch on her box (hedging!).
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Plus, when out walking the dog yesterday I stumbled upon this chap. Can't for the life of me think what it is. Can anyone help?
I sort of feel it should be some kind of forum mascot...
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So clever my foot fell off.
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The last one i am pretty sure it is a Slow worm...
The other..... get a flame thrower.... now
Regards
V
first one looks like a cockchafer (snigger) / maybug , second one is a slowworm.
Yay!! At long last!! It is!!
The beetle thing - it is a Cockchafer, so keep it away from your trousers.
The snake looking thing is a slow worm I believe and the other thing, wait for it : A cockchafer beetle
That critter has made news headlines in the past and is known as a May bug I think
Rather than Messerschmitts and Junkers darkening the skies, this time it is a small flying insect that is bugging the Garden of England.
Dense formations of cockchafers, an inch-long flying beetle, have been blitzing the seaside town of Margate in recent days, dive-bombing cars and strafing washing lines with their droppings.
The unseasonal invasion of cockchafers – their other popular name is May bug – is believed to be down to the huge amounts of seaweed that have been washing up on the shoreline recently.
Second one is a lizard. Definitely not a worm or a snake.
Edit: Thought the above was a heavy enough hint I knew what it was without spelling it out!
Last edited by Christian; 21st May 2020 at 13:33.
We've had, if not exactly an invasion, but a visitation by cockchafers recently - 3 in the house in the last couple of weeks. They crash about and make a racket but they're basically harmless, to humans at least. Stupid creatures, too, they seem to spend half their time upside down trying to right themselves.. maybe their centre of gravity's off.
They have been scooped up with a glass and politely but firmly defenestrated with an admonishment to not come back.
Cheers,
Plug
My daughter caught one of these the other day and it's currently in a big pile of dry leaves in an old fishtank biding its time before escaping - if my childhood experiences are anything to go on. I told the kids what they eat and so the tank is now crawling with bugs - it apparently visibly ate something and so they are absolutely focussed on it doing it again - I'll throw a picture up later if anyone is interested.
Protected yes, but it’s not illegal for his children to have caught it as long as they don’t kill, injure or attempt to sell the thing. Not saying anything but clarifying that I don’t believe he’s done anything illegal.
Considering mating season is right about now, I think it’s even worse to have the thing in a tank at this time.
We call them Billy Witches, my daughter left me one under a cup in the kitchen yesterday.
Yep section five. It's not for sale. You want to find a dozy sloworm look under something dry. They hunt in damp environments, they don't bed down in them. I'm pretty sure that I've got the environment just right as long as I spray it daily with rainwater. The fact that it is happily basking and eating suggests it's not terribly stressed. I kept one as a kid and it lived for many years so I think I'm on reasonably safe territory.
The point about mating season is a good one though. Perhaps I'll catch her a male.
Last edited by M4tt; 21st May 2020 at 15:33.
The bug in the first pic is as common as muck in Spain and they are a sort of bee that looks like a beetle. They are good pollinators and are very useful. They are also very randy and procreate faster than mice. They spend a lot of time copulating whilst pollenating. You often see them jumping on and off each other. The wife and myself must see hundreds of these every day. As far as I know, they do not sting and do not seem aggressive.
Foe those with limited knowledge of slow worms, it may be interesting to know that one of their defence tricks is to shed their tail. It twitches wildly as a distraction to whatever is attacking it.
It eventually grows back to a limited extent, so that ones that have deployed this tactic display a stumpy appearance.
I knew that if a predator has them by the tail and tore or bit it off it would regrow and look stumpy, often see them like that in our garden, escapees of my moggy more than likely. But I didn't know they could shed it on purpose as a diversion. Well every day is a school day, thank you.
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Can someone please explain the running "slow worm" reference which has filtered through the forum for some months now? I must have missed that particular thread.
Thanks in advance!
In similar vein to this thread, a year or two ago someone innocently posted a photo of some totally and obviously non-slow-worm creature (like a dragonfly larva or a leech or something) enquiring as to the exact nature of this beastie, and one replier was adamant that it was a slow worm and that he should know because his dad had a slow worm farm, or was related to a slow worm, or something similar.
He was so adamant, and so obviously wrong, that it became a legendary thread and that is why its memory is invoked for comic effect when a similar question is posed.
No doubt someone will (or already has) post a link to the original and best.
TBH you had to be there..........
I suppose it is the TZUK equivalent of Mornington Crescent.
Last edited by unclealec; 21st May 2020 at 15:59.
I did a forum search on "slow worm" but failed to find the original thread.
However, I have been chuckling away at some of the tongue-in-cheek applications of the erroneous slow worm diagnosis; I suggest that those with enough time to spare in their current hectic schedules give it a try.
And if you do find the original, please post the link.
The hedges surrounding my childhood home in back-lane east Cornwall were alive with them, and common lizards.
Def a slow worm. Next doors old cat used to bite them in half and squeeze the insides out of them like a calippo leaving a gift at the back door.
Yuck.
https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...ight=Slow+worm
Think I have found it
I’m saved this one from the dogs a few weekends ago, I generally see these dead embedded in the front of car grilles and haven’t seen a live one for years.
Maybugs are a weird creature especially they’re flowery antenna things
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Slow worm, like MX-5 is a forum generic solution to most problems.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Clever beasts can grow back a shorter version if the original is shed (as distraction to aggressor). However, Mk2 is not sheddable (?)....so it is a one-off emergency escape measure.
https://www.gwct.org.uk/wildlife/spe...017/slow-worm/
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I’m out for a walk with my daughter and our dog as I write this and we just came across this little fella. My daughter was nervous about holding it until I assured her it was perfectly harmless.
I put it in the grass at the side of the path.