Early stag

As my fellow blippers may know, I am very very fond of stag beetles and have blipped them on more than one occasion.

Woodbridge is full of ancient oaks and it has always been a good place to spot these (to my mind) glamorous insects.

Though I freely admit that glamour, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Last autumn my chopping block (an old chunk of tree trunk) exploded as we chopped firewood, and exposed a stagbeetle creche inside. Racked with guilt I gathered up the pieces, hastily put them back together with their curled, creamy, finger-sized, orange-headed inhabitants, and stacked them at the back of the woodpile.

I'm hoping this chap is a result of my rescue.

Stag beetles are supposed to emerge in late May so this one was out very early. His horns were beautifully bright shiny chestnut and his body was all dusty and powdery. I suspect that's from the rotten wood or earth where he overwintered as an imago and whence he crawled, lured out by the sun and the thought of a week or two of promiscuous, untrammelled stag beetle sex after all those years of larval celibacy.

So its ho for the stag night!