On 11 July 2011, my grandson brought me a dead stag beetle, knowing that I would record it in the survey, which has been done.
It was found in the footpath leading from St Cyrus Rd, to Chalfont Rd, Colchester, a footpath bordered by an ancient hedgerow and is a place where stags often appear.
The beetle found was a female and unusually had a circular hole about 3mm in diameter in the rear upper abdomen which could have been the exit hole of a parasite.
We have noted several dead stag beetles in the area over the years, but this is the first damaged in ths way. Could it have been a parasite ?
Your Forum
This forum has now been more or less replaced by the Club's Facebook page at 
The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more
The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more