Funny holidays - Maybug's birthday

A large insect with a barrel-shaped body, hard wings and powerful legs is colloquially called a Khrushchev. A pest of agricultural crops and forests in Europe and Asia, it is also known as the cockchafer. It got its name from the month in which adults emerge from the larvae laid by females. In some climatic zones, the beetle hatches from the pupa not in May, but in June and even July, if the summer was late. In the 1980s, there was a sharp decline in the beetlefish population due to the use of pesticides. After the introduction of a ban on the use of a number of insecticides, the number of insects began to recover, and with it the local ecosystems at the level of biogeocenosis. The appearance of Khrushchev at the end of spring symbolizes the arrival of warmth and sunny weather. Therefore, May 18th is the Maybug's birthday. Controlling insect pests is a common task for farmers, gardeners and gardeners. The Colorado potato beetle is the main enemy of the nightshade family: peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and other crops. It got its name in 1859 from the American state of Colorado, where it devastated a potato field. The cockchafer harms a much larger number of plants. Its larvae are very tenacious, because... can live for more than 3 days without oxygen. Chafer caterpillars undermine the root system of pine trees and other plants. The adult beetle, the imago, eats the buds, leaves and flowers of both forest and garden trees and shrubs. Despite the fact that scientists have been studying the cockchafer for a long time, it still poses a mystery. The rhythm of life of a Khrushchev depends on the sun. During the day they are inactive and dormant; they fly and feed on insects in the evening and at night. Khrushchev's movement through the air at a height of more than 100 m from the ground is contrary to the laws of aerodynamics. Chafers have a very low lift coefficient, so given their body weight, scientists say they shouldn't be able to fly at all. The beetle larva, a favorite delicacy of hedgehogs, is very aggressive. In addition to the fact that during the day she can completely destroy the roots of a two-year-old pine tree, she can eat mole crickets many times larger in size. The bulging eyes of the Khrushchev have a very complex structure, which allows it to have a wide range of vision. The insect can see up to 3 km away. It is very interesting that Khrushchev have a connection with the Earth’s magnetic belt. During daytime sleep or night rest, the insect is located strictly on a north-south or west-east line. The beetle has a very good memory - having once visited an area with lush leaves and flowers of bushes or trees, it will never get lost and will easily return there again. The natural enemies of beetles, in addition to hedgehogs, are starlings, rooks and thrushes. Feeders should be hung for these birds to protect the plantings on the site from the voracious insect. Gardeners and gardeners talk about these and other features of the beetle on the Maybug's birthday.