Noble chafer
| Noble chafer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Family: | Scarabaeidae |
| Genus: | Gnorimus |
| Species: | G. nobilis |
| Binomial name | |
| Gnorimus nobilis (Linnaeus, 1758) | |
The noble chafer (Gnorimus nobilis) is a green beetle with a metallic sheen. It spends most of its life as a grub, living in the rotting wood of aging fruit trees. It reaches adulthood in its second summer, and comes out to breed and feed on flowers such as common hogweed, before dying in the early autumn. The adult tends to be found high up in the trees, in old pruned wood or woodpecker holes.
So little is known about the noble chafer that conservationists are unsure exactly how many are left. Noble chafers are most often seen on warm sunny days between July and August. The beetle has been losing its habitat, and its populations shrinking, for more than a century. The beetle has been recently seen at a handful of sites in the old English fruit-growing regions of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
See also
External links
- "Bid to save rare British beetle". BBC News. 2005-06-27.
- Noble chafer media at ARKive
- UK Biodiversity Action Plan Species Action Plan
- People's Trust for Endangered Species Biodiversity Action Plan: Noble Chafer