cockchafer

Meaning

Noun

• Any of the large European beetles from the genus Melolontha that are destructive to vegetation.
• Any of various other similar beetles, such as of the genera Acrossidius (genus), Cyphochilus (genus), Rhopaea (genus), etc.

Related

Similar words

• May bug, doodlebug

Narrower meaning words

• black-headed pasture cockchafer, Acrossidius tasmaniae (species)
• brown cockchafer, Rhopaea magnicornis (species)
• common cockchafer, Melolontha melolontha (species)
• forest cockchafer, Melolontha hippocastani (species)
• large cockchafer, Melolontha pectoralis (species)
• large white cockchafer, Cyphochilus apicalis (species)

Origin

• From cock + chafer. The Oxford English Dictionary speculates that the name may relate to a resemblance of antennae to coxcomb, or to the beetle’s size. Compare French hanneton ("cockchafer"), ultimately from Frankish *hano. Attested from the late seventeenth century.