Touty
Well-known member
Today's Torygraph contains an article about another extinct species back from the dead (and it's not talking about the Tory Party)
I post the article rather than just the link 'cos the site requires registration.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...tle28.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/28/ixhome.html
Nice photo here:
http://www.hlasek.com/cerambyx_cerdo_6133.html
'Extinct' beetle comes out of the woodwork
By Nick Britten
(Filed: 28/05/2005)
A beetle thought to have been extinct in Britain for more than 100 years has been found nesting in a house in Warwickshire.
Microsoft
The property's owner telephoned experts "in a state of high anxiety" after seeing the giant capricorn beetle crawling across a floor.
The discovery of the beetle, which is 2½ in long, with 4 in long antennae, has delighted scientists at the Stratford Butterfly Farm, who are looking after it. Geordie Jackson, the curator of the insect house, said he was sceptical when the woman described the beetle.
"But it's a great find," he said. "We brought it in here and it seems quite happy. Normally it eats rotten wood and sap although yesterday it was eating pineapple."
While the discovery is great news for the butterfly farm, it is not so good for the beetle's former landlady, who has declined to be named. The insect nested in some reclaimed beams put into the games room of her house in Stratford. The likelihood is that there are more waiting to come out.
The larvae, considered a culinary delicacy in the sub-continent, can cause widespread damage. They live in the wood for about three years before pupating and emerging as a beetle. The capricorn, Cerambyx cerdo, has large, powerful jaws capable of biting through wood, and the odd finger.
I post the article rather than just the link 'cos the site requires registration.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...tle28.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/28/ixhome.html
Nice photo here:
http://www.hlasek.com/cerambyx_cerdo_6133.html
'Extinct' beetle comes out of the woodwork
By Nick Britten
(Filed: 28/05/2005)
A beetle thought to have been extinct in Britain for more than 100 years has been found nesting in a house in Warwickshire.
Microsoft
The property's owner telephoned experts "in a state of high anxiety" after seeing the giant capricorn beetle crawling across a floor.
The discovery of the beetle, which is 2½ in long, with 4 in long antennae, has delighted scientists at the Stratford Butterfly Farm, who are looking after it. Geordie Jackson, the curator of the insect house, said he was sceptical when the woman described the beetle.
"But it's a great find," he said. "We brought it in here and it seems quite happy. Normally it eats rotten wood and sap although yesterday it was eating pineapple."
While the discovery is great news for the butterfly farm, it is not so good for the beetle's former landlady, who has declined to be named. The insect nested in some reclaimed beams put into the games room of her house in Stratford. The likelihood is that there are more waiting to come out.
The larvae, considered a culinary delicacy in the sub-continent, can cause widespread damage. They live in the wood for about three years before pupating and emerging as a beetle. The capricorn, Cerambyx cerdo, has large, powerful jaws capable of biting through wood, and the odd finger.
