The Cockchafer (or "May bug" , as it is colloquially called) is a European beetle of the genus Melolontha, in the dung beetle family, the Scarabaeidae. Once abundant throughout Europe and a major pest in the periodical years of "mass flight", it has been decimated significantly in the middle of the 20th century through extensive use of pesticides and has even been locally exterminated in many regions. However, since a change in pest control beginning in the 1980s, its numbers have started to grow again.