All that’s missing from this illustration of the life cycle of the Dock beetle is the pupation stage but I’m not going to disturb their underground pupae to show you that. Though common, I still find them fascinating and, because they’re common, they’re a good insect to show children how a beetle’s life cycle functions.

n.b. There may be an extra insect in the photo of the larvae. I suspect those tiny white dots might be hoverfly eggs, as the larvae of some species enjoying feasting on various leaf beetle eggs and larvae. I’ll be doing more leaf-turning to check.