A May Bug... The Melolontha species are beetles of the scarab family. From May until early to mid July these beasties take to the air every evening at dusk - sometimes in dozens, hundreds or even thousands - searching for mates. The buzzing of their wings is like the hum of high voltage power lines. Having mated, many times, the beetles die off, but not until they have laid eggs in the ground. The eggs hatch into larvae which spend years in development, usually between 20 cm and 1 m below the surface and feeding on plant roots. When they mature, the beetles surface and feed on leafy trees such as birch. When the beetles get tired, nearby amateur photographers set up their tripods and set nice long exposure times (1.8 seconds in this case) in order to catch as much detail as they can before the critter crawls off to die.
