Beetle / Besouro

The insect known in Madeira by the name of beetle is the Macroglossa stellatarum, of the order Lepidoptera. It appears in the afternoon to suck the nectar of flowers, thus becoming an unconscious agent of the fertilization of various species. Due to its size, way of flying, and the noise it produces when visiting flowers, it so closely resembles a hummingbird that an English traveler once thought he had seen this small bird in Madeira.

The caterpillar of the Madeiran beetle feeds on species of the genus Galium, and therefore causes no devastation to the plants in the vegetable gardens and flower beds. When well fed, it burrows into the ground and transforms into a brown chrysalis.

After an article that Dr. Nuno Silvestre Teixeira, a distinguished doctor from Funchal, published in the Diário de Notícias about 25 years ago, in which certain extravagant habits of European beetles were indicated, the Madeirans started calling individuals with similar habits to those attributed to those insects by the aforementioned doctor, beetles. The Madeiran beetle, although it exists in Europe, has no resemblance or affinities with the European beetle.

At nightfall, another Lepidoptera, much larger and sturdier than the Macroglossa, and which the Madeirans call a large butterfly or beetle, appears frequently in the gardens. This insect, also belonging to the sphingids, is the Sphinx Convolvuli, whose larvae feed on potato leaves, etc., etc. Boys usually catch the large butterflies when they land on flowers to suck the nectar they feed on.