In Fauna Britannica, Stefan Buczacki explains that ‘“Chafer” is a Middle English word, perhaps meaning “to gnaw” and possibly related to the word “chaff” for the husks of grain’. The several species of chafer eat plants, in particular the roots of plants, so they can be serious pests, of crops and, in the case of the species shown here, the Garden chafer (Phyllopertha horticola), of the plants in your garden. Various species of bird have also learnt that chafer larvae are nutritious, so they can cause damage to lawns and turf when poking about trying to find them.

As I seldom see chafers and don’t have a garden, I was nothing but delighted when I spotted not one but two Garden chafers, their metallic green and bronze colours glistening in the sunshine, in a Cardiff park. As these were quite hairy, I believe that means they had very recently emerged from their pupae; the hairs rub off as they age. The two I found were both in a wild area, of scrub and trees and overgrown Bramble bushes, but chafers are good, if bumbling fliers, so they did have the potential to cause damage to local gardens. Sorry, gardeners!