May is the month that things get named after. I guess that's because things happen at quite a rate in May and people use flowers and emerging insects to signpost the year. Just recently we've put the moth trap out a couple of times and the trap and the space around it were full of cockchafers - otherwise known as May-bugs because that's when they emerge. The larvae of the cockchafer live underground for a couple of years where they then pupate and subsequently turn into the adult beetle. The adults then stay underground until either their internal calendar or the ground temperature tell them that it's time to go and locate a member of the opposite sex. This they do above ground and at night. Unfortunately they can get side-tracked by bright street-lights or moth traps. If you want to know a male cockchafer from a female cockchafer (henchafer?!) then look carefully at its antennae - males have seven leaves, females six.
Other things named after the month include may blossom or hawthorn, and mayflies. We are not near enough to a river to commonly see mayflies in Pett, but there is plenty of may blossom.
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| Cockchafer - Melolontha melolontha |
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| Cockchafer - Melolontha melolontha |
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| May Blossom - Hawthorn - Crataegus monogyna |
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