surveys
Since 1999, PTES has commissioned entomologists to search for noble chafers in the counties known to have high concentrations of old orchards.
Noble chafers are very rarely seen and earlier surveys of this BAP species were largely unsuccessful because of the elusiveness of the adult beetles. Spending most of their two-year life cycle inside the rotting trunks of old orchard trees, they can be easily overlooked. More recently, we have turned our attention to the larvae rather than the adult beetles. The larvae produce very distinctive droppings, called ‘frass’ which is left in trees where the larvae have been present. Examining old fruit trees is now providing us with evidence of the continued survival of the beetle and helping us map where they still exist.
Until 2007, the majority of positive records were from the main fruit growing regions of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire with some outlying populations in south Oxfordshire and the New Forest. In September 2007, noble chafer frass and larvae were found in a small plum orchard in Swale in Kent. This was the first positive sighting for around 60 years and a major leap forward in our knowledge of its range. We are now focusing our surveying efforts in Kent in order to determine the extent of the population.
Click here to see a UK distribution map of the noble chafer.
