Beetle

What an incredible creature with the fan-like antenna !
Well, I'm happy you preserved its short existence in these photos.
Good captures !!

 

Very nice shot.
What a fuzzy guy

 

great capture and hmm nice meal for the bird I guess

 

Great captures, sad ending for the beetle... Ah well, the circle of life continues.

 

Nice shots of a male may chafer (Melolontha melolontha) - the females have much smaller antennal "fans". They have been dreaded pests many years ago when you could collect buckets full of them. My grandfather told me that in his time the town goverment payed per kilogram :smile:

In historical times people ate them. In old recipe books you may still find the "May Chafer Soup".

There were so-called may-chafer-years every fourth year, when they were particularly common, because thats is how long their larval period lasts.
They are still calamities in certain areas nowadays, but in many places they have become downright rare (mostly due to pesticides).

In Austria we have two more species of that genus (one exceedingly rare).

Cheers