Common cockchafer
A cockchafer grub can spend three to five years feeding underground on roots before finally emerging as an adult that lives for only about six weeks.
| Where | Woodland edges, farmland, parks |
|---|---|
| Size | 25 to 30 mm long |
| When | April to June |
Adults have a black head and pronotum, reddish-brown wing cases, and a pointed black abdomen tip that shows white triangular patches along its sides.
Their thick, C-shaped white grubs live in the soil for years feeding on roots, before the short-lived adults emerge in spring to fly clumsily around trees at dusk.
Traits
Habitat
Farmland
Colour
Brown, Black
Active
Night
To people
Larvae can damage plant roots in gardens and farmland; adults are harmless to people
Activity through the year
Often confused with
The forest cockchafer is almost identical in size and colour, and is reliably told apart only by its pygidium tip, which is shorter than the common cockchafer's longer, more pointed one.
Questions
Is the Common cockchafer dangerous to people?
Larvae can damage plant roots in gardens and farmland; adults are harmless to people.
When can you see the Common cockchafer?
The Common cockchafer can be seen from April to June, at night.
Plate retouched from a photo by Didier Descouens, CC BY‑SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons Licence
The plate on this page is shared under the same licence as its source, CC BY-SA.
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Last updated 2026-09-26. Every entry is checked against published sources.