Big Bugs

While I was spreading  mulch (two year old wood chips) in my garden I noticed a very large brown beetle in the mulch. This beetle was over an inch long and I soon discovered over two dozen of these beetles.



This beetle is the grapevine beetle, Pelidnota punctata, also known as Spotted June Beetle. Beetle eggs are laid in rotten wood or tree stumps,  where they hatch into larvae. Larvae then dig their way into the soil, where they feed on rotted wood. Pupal chambers (photo on right) are built shallowly underground. The adults emerge in June or July.