The stag-beetle (Lucanus cervus) is sadly a rare sight these days, even in this area, where it has traditionally been native.

The species is listed as a globally threatened under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and is one of the priority species in the London Biodiversity Action Plan. I was so thrilled to find one among the leaf mulch shed by a Red Robin (Photinia) in my garden the other day.

Actually I didn’t find it, my elderly mother did. She didn’t quite scream, but she did pick up a stick and shrieked something about “getting rid of it”. Once the cause of her commotion was revealed I ushered her back towards the house, with the reassurance that I would deal with it.

Obviously I wasn’t going to hurt the creature, which was about six centimeters long with smaller mandibles, leading me to think it must have been female. The stag beetle population has been in decline since the 1940s, possibly because large areas of their woodland habitats have been destroyed. The beetles lay their eggs underground or by logs or the stumps of dead trees and the larvae use the dead wood as a kind of incubator in which they spend up to seven years growing to maturity. Lewisham is still a good place to find them and so is Beckenham, but whether this one had travelled from a neighbouring borough or hailed from a colony closer to home I don’t know.

Anyway, closer inspection showed the bug was dead and half of the black shiny was missing. I think the cat must have had it.