First beetle of the year spotted in Sussex

During a recent survey of a large Georgian country house (actually a Georgian make-over to an existing older timber frame structure) in the SE of England, we came across our first emerging deathwatch beetle of the season.

The picture below shows how the beetle has chewed its way out from just beneath the surface, leaving quite jagged edges to the flight hole.

We noticed the beetle emerging around 11:00 and it was still struggling out at around 14:30. The beetle uses a large amount of its energy reserves simply emerging. It is not unusual to find dead beetles poking out of the flight holes where they simply have not had the energy to complete emergence.