"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
...
shazzbat wrote:
I've ben finding these handsome chaps on the allotment lately. I can't
remember having found them before.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t...life/18Oct.jpg

Friend or foe?

Dunno - it looks like a beetle larva, something like a lamellicorn - but
it isn't that beetle, quite.

I'd put them in a box/tin, or better, the bottom half of a plastic milk
bottle, along with some of the soil or detritus they're living in, and
see what they turn into.


I might be tempted to do that, too. They could be almost any beetle larva
but definitely not stag beetle as they live (preferably) in rotting apple
trees and take 7 years to turn into adults.
Tina

Thanks for the responses everybody. I'll accept that they're fairly benign
in the weeds on the allotment, at least they're not in my lawn. They can go
on the grass path between the plots and take their chances with the birds.

Steve