Thursday 28 January 2021

BBC: Bog beetles finally reveal their remarkable age

As big as your thumb: If alive today they'd be among Britain's biggest beetlesIMAGE COPYRIGHTNHM
image captionAs big as your thumb: If alive today they'd be among Britain's biggest beetles

It's amazing what treasures are tucked away in the collections of London's Natural History Museum - some not fully recognised yet even by the curators.

Take the example of two beetles wedged in the grooves of a piece of oak that was dug from a peat bog in the 1970s.

The insects were donated to the London institution by a farmer concerned they might be an invasive species. They weren't, and so were put in a drawer. 

Only now have they been examined and shown to be nearly 4,000 years old.

The beetles are Oak Capricorns (Cerambyx), a species not previously known to have ever existed in Britain.

About the size of your thumb, they have wonderful long antennae. And if alive today and resident in the UK, they would certainly be among the country's largest beetles.


Read on...

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