All about the bronze beetle

Surely at least once in your life, being on a sunny June day in the garden or in the country, you saw large beetles flying with a resounding buzz among trees and flowers. With almost one hundred percent certainty, it can be argued that these were bronzes, which will be discussed in our article today.

Bronze (lat.Cetoniinae) belongs to the subfamily of beetles, the family of lamellar beetles. Let's describe how it looks:

• the body of the beetle is oval-oblong, the head is small, directed forward and slightly lowered;
• the size depends on the subspecies and varies between 0.8-3 cm;
• the head is equipped with black lamellar antennae;
• the back of the beetle is often covered with small hairs, however, there are varieties with smooth elytra;
• bronzes come in different colors, it also depends on which species is in front of you;
• beetles have well-developed wings.

Features of bronzes:

• during flight, they do not raise the rigid elytra upward, as the overwhelming majority of beetles do, but release transparent wings through special slots on the sides of the elytra;
• regardless of the variety, on the pronotum, breast, legs and elytra of the bronzovka, one can see light scaly specks of various sizes and shapes;
• the legs of the beetle are provided with notches that help the insect to dig the ground.

Let's say a few words about the larvae:

• they are rather large, thick, C-curved;
• the head is transverse, the apex of the frontal triangle is rounded;
• the length of the larva's body can be up to 6 cm;
• tarsi long, indistinctly segmented, without claws;
• larvae crawl on their backs, since their C-shaped body does not allow them to do it otherwise.

It is especially active on hot summer days. If the sun is hidden behind the clouds, the insect is inactive, it just sits on the flower and does not take off. When it is cold and cloudy, the bronzovka seeks refuge on the ground, under rosettes of leaves or near roots. By the way, beetles often sleep below too. The beginning of the flight of the bronzes and its duration vary depending on the habitat of the beetle (see table).

Now let's find out what the bronzovka eats. As a rule, her diet consists of flowers and young leaves, you can also find an insect on a tree trunk, if tree sap flows out of there - beetles gather there in droves and feast. Here are the plants that the bronze plant prefers:

• roses, wild rose and other rosaceous;
• wild plants from the family of dogwood, mallow, moth, knotweed, celery, beech, asteraceae, labiate, iris, carnation;
• vegetables: cabbage, carrots, beets, radish;
• apple, pear and apricot trees, blackberry and cherry bushes, mountain ash, viburnum;
• grain crops: buckwheat, corn, rye.

In addition to nectar, petals, leaves and plant cores, the bronze can "treat" itself to berries and overripe fruits.

After reading the previous paragraph, you might think that bronze is definitely a pest that spoils cultural plantings. But don't jump to conclusions. In fact, it does damage to gardeners, rather, from an aesthetic point of view - after all, the beetle eats flower petals and leaves, they take on an unattractive "nibbled" look. However, the plants do not die from this, although their fruiting can be reduced (due to the fact that the bronze eats a flower that does not have time to turn into an ovary). With all this, the insect does not belong to economically dangerous pests, no special measures are taken against it.

Bronze can even be useful for the garden and vegetable garden. So, its larvae restore soil fertility, eating rotten wood residues, processing the compost mass and decaying plant particles. In this regard, they can be compared to earthworms. Adults also bring some benefit: they fly from flower to flower, thereby pollinating plants.

Consider several varieties of bronzes.

One of the largest species, the length of its body reaches 3 centimeters. The general characteristics were indicated earlier, let us dwell on the features of this subspecies.

• It has a very beautiful color: the general tone is metallic green with bluish copper highlights. Feet - green-blue.
• Smooth bronze dwells in deciduous and oak forests, it can also be found in the garden, where there are dead trees with hollows.
• Habitat - central Europe, center and south of Russia.
• Smooth bronze is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation and those European countries where it is found.

Its other names are: spotted, speckled / fetid deer.

• It has a brilliant black color with snow-white spots on the sides, back, elytra.
• This variety is shaggy (there is pubescence on the body with small light hairs), the length varies from 0.8 to 1.3 cm.
• Habitats - steppe and forest-steppe zones, as well as meadows.
• Opinions differ on the origin of its name. One of the versions says that if you hold an insect in your hands, you can smell the stench, while the other says that initially, when translating its Latin name (Oxythyrea funesta), a mistake arose - funestus means "mournful, tragic", and not "smelly ".

Specifications:

• the length of the beetle's body is 2-2.7 cm;
• the color above is dark bronze, the belly is bronze-green, the legs are green with a metallic sheen, the back is covered with transversely arranged white spots-strokes;
• habitat - Europe, Siberia, the Far East, Smolensk region;
• lives in mixed and deciduous forests, parks, forest belts;
• in the Russian Federation it is not protected, but it is listed in the Red Book of Belarus.

The most common variety.

• The color of the beetle is an orange-copper abdomen, the back is golden-green, shiny. The elytra are decorated with whitish stripes.
• Body length - 1.3-2.3 cm.
• The habitat of golden bronze is extensive - it is practically all countries of Asia and Europe, excluding deserts and mountainous areas.

Species characteristics:

• body length - 1.4-2.5 cm;
• on top, the color is grassy green, sometimes with a golden or copper-red tint (although there are individuals with a completely copper-red top), the abdomen is greenish, copper-red, whitish spots of irregular shape can be seen on the elytra;
• habitat - Crimea, European countries, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, China;
• prefers to settle in the steppe zones.

Quite a rare species that was even considered extinct:

• is endemic to Dagestan, not found anywhere else;
• body length - 2 cm, width - 1.2 cm;
• the color is dark, bronze-green, the elytra are matte, the abdomen and tarsi are shiny;
• lives on flowers, loves rosaceous flowers more than others.

As the name implies, this bronze is from overseas.In our country, it is not found, its habitat is Africa, namely Uganda, Rwanda and Zaire. This is a stunningly beautiful beetle with an unusual color for bronze - electric blue with white stripes and a white head. The elytra have a greenish tint, the tarsi are black-green. The Ugandan bronze is very large, its body length is 5-7 cm. The diet of the insect is quite consistent with its exotic location: the beetle loves bananas, mangoes, grapes, nectarine. Do not hesitate and pollen.

Some people mistakenly confuse bronze with beetle, however, these are two completely different insects. Here's how they can be distinguished by their appearance:

• the color of the May beetle is brown, moreover, it is all covered with white fluff;
• bronzes resemble precious stones - they are bright (except for the stinky ones), glossy, shiny, shimmering in green, blue and gold.

But with the larvae of these beetles, inexperienced gardeners have a harder time - they are, in fact, very similar. It would seem that you found it - destroy it, but there is one snag: the larvae of the beetle are pests, but the larvae of the bronzovka bring real benefits to the garden and orchard. The “cubs” of the May beetle gnaw at the rhizomes of plants, which makes them dry up and die, while the babies of the bronze feed only on plant residues, processing them and enriching the soil, so they cannot be killed.

Let's figure out the external differences between the larvae of both species:

• Khrusch: large head, powerful jaw gnawing apparatus, long legs with claws;
• bronzovka: small head and jaws, short legs.

As mentioned earlier, no special measures to combat bronze have been developed, since this insect is not considered a dangerous pest.

The method is quite effective, especially in areas with a small area. It consists in the following: as we know, bronzes sleep at night, hiding in the hollows of rotten trees, in stumps, behind bark and leaves, as well as in other secluded places. When dawn breaks, they crawl out, but do not take off until the air warms up to an acceptable temperature for them. Then you need to collect them. Insects are removed from plants, placed in a jar of kerosene or plain water. They die there.

The soil around the plants can be treated with insecticidal preparations, such as Prestige, Medvetox or Diazinon.because we know that bronzovki often come down to the ground to spend the night. It is not recommended to spray the plants themselves with chemicals, since beneficial insects, for example, bees, can die along with harmful ones. If you still decide to apply them, use "Aktara", "Fitoverm" or "Iskra-Bio".

At home, you can prepare solutions, irrigating your plantings with which you can get rid of bronzes.

• If you find an uninvited guest on roses, take 300 grams of fresh celandine (or 100 grams of dried celandine), fill it with a liter of boiling water and leave for 24 hours in a dark place. It is recommended to process rose bushes with this composition once every 5 days. By the way, to enhance the effectiveness, you can add liquid or laundry soap to the solution.
• Wood ash is another "magic wand". To prepare a remedy for bronzes, you will need 1 glass of this substance and 5 liters of water. Insist the solution for 2-3 days. Then add two tablespoons of liquid soap to it and you can use it to spray the plants.

See the next video for more information on the bronze beetle.