A maybug, or Doodlebug, after nearly drowning

I was preparing to water some plants in pots on the steps outside our patio doors and looked into a bucket. There was this Maybug, sometimes called a Doodlebug, lying upside down in some water. I knew I wanted to blip it, so grabbed my nearby camera and picked the bug up in some tissue paper and placed it on one of the steps the right way up.

It hopped about for a few a seconds which allowed me time to adjust the camera. It started to spread its wings in preparation for flight and I managed a few snaps before it finally took off with its familiar very loud buzzing and disappeared off into the garden once again.

I looked online and found this website, called 'Discover wildlife'. One of its comments was that 'In 1574, cockchafers (as maybugs are properly named) emerged in such numbers in the Severn valley that the volume of carcasses disabled watermills.' This is interesting as the stream below our garden runs into the River Frome two hundred yards away, which then runs into the River Severn, ten miles to the west of here. There aren't many watermills left but we get visited by maybugs every year and I like them, even though they are quite worrying when they arrive in our bedroom in the middle of the night in springtime.