Brown chafer - Serica brunnea - Family: Scarabaeidae

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Brown chafer - Serica brunnea
© Roger Key/English Nature

Copper-brown in colour, and similar to the small cockchafer, this small chafer occurs in areas with light, friable soils, usually on sand, dry peat or chalk/limestone. Adults can sometimes be found at tree wounds that are exuding sap. The adult beetle is around in mid-summer and disperses by flying at night. It is often attracted to outside lights, which is when it is most often seen in gardens.

The beetles themselves are an important food for some species of bird and bat. Sometimes, mass emergences may give rise to a feeding frenzy involving rooks, crows, gulls and other birds. The larvae, which live in sandy soil at grass roots, are a favourite food of moles and badgers, which may damage lawns in digging for them.

Food

Larvae feed on grass roots.

Predators

Badger, Black-headed gull, Jackdaw