Around forty were collected from the well last autumn and split into two batches. One half was placed inside an old cracked tomb in Long Melford churchyard whilst the rest were released in some old disused
pigsties some distance further away. Although in this country Blaps mucronata
is normally a synanthropic species which only occurs inside buildings or as
a stray around the outside, it is known to be able to exist in the wild for a
relatively short period of time, eventually such colonies or individuals die
out because our winter climate is presumably too inhospitable for such a
warmth-loving insect. A search by day at both release sites on May 17th, 2003 failed
to turn up any beetles, although it was obviously impossible to open up the
tomb! Blaps mucronata is largely nocturnal so it is planned to put down
some vegetables as bait to try to attract any surviving beetles at night. The
photo shows one of the released beetles. Shortly after the Great Cornard colony was discovered, DN was recording beetles in the walled garden of Glemham House at Great Glemham (TM3461) when the gardener, Alan Sharpe, mentioned that he sometimes came across large, slow-moving black beetles in the old greenhouses. Suspecting that these might be a species of Blaps, a search of the green houses was carried out but no beetles of any kind were found. Alan Sharpe was asked to collect the next specimen that he came across.
On 9th October he found an example of Blaps mucronata, which was sent to DN for identification. Knowing that it was likely to die if released outside, it was kept alive in a plastic container with a little water and a variety of chopped vegetables. Early in 2003, the beetle was sent to Driffield in Yorkshire to become the bedroom pet of an ardent insect-lover, the young daughter of a former pupil of DN. The Blaps is now living in the lap of luxury having its own private “cave” inside a sand filled tank set up to mimic the desert home of the majority of tenebrionid beetles like Blaps. The beetle emerges at night to sip water and partake of the variety of fresh pieces of fruit and vegetable that are on offer. What a life!,
