BATTLING BEETLES

摘要

They were once thought to summon lightning, and we still have lots to learn about stag beetles if we want to conserve these wood-munching leviathans, says Kate Bradbury.The phone rings at 9.30pm on a Tuesday in June: "Guess what I've got in my hand?" Richard 'Bugman' Jones - entomologist and regular contributor to BBC Wildlife Magazine (see P72) - caught a female stag beetle flying round his garden earlier in the evening, and now has a shiny, antlered male to complete the set. I can't wait to see them up close for myself, so next day I pay him a visit.