The Beetle of the Month
• On an evening walk with the dog, the sweet smell of basswood blossoms and soft breeze of summer are one of the benefits of living in the Great Plains. Add to this the hum of seemingly car-sized beetles drifting through the night air, and paradise could exert no greater pull upon us.
• A common experience this time of year is the nocturnal flights of the June beetle (or May beetle, for those of you from the south).  Sometimes, we only notice the aftermath of these flights; namely the large beetles lying belly up with legs gently squirming on the patio, porch, or parking lot whose lights had been left on the previous night.
• Temperature dictates the development rate of June beetles, such that they can all begin their adult lives at the same time. Generally, it takes June beetles around 2-3 years to complete development from egg to adult. They pupate in the late summer or fall, and finally eclose (or come out of the pupal stage) together. This mass eclosion overwhelms potential predators and makes finding a mate a bit easier. From one perspective, this makes the neighborhood streetlamp a bit like a single's bar for June beetles.
• June beetle adults are harmless. They may consume some foliage on trees or shrubs, but this seldom has any lasting effects on the trees. In reality, there are multiple species of June beetles, all in the genus Phyllophaga, which is important to realize since they look very similar but can behave a bit differently.
• The real problem with June beetles comes from their larvae. June beetle larvae

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