It is a Cockchafer Beetle grub (http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/cockchaf.htm)

Seek and destroy - otherwise you'll lose anything you've planted!

Hi there,

run to hills people.......That's vile!

I think they are also know as maybugs?

They hatch into huge bee shaped moth bug things.
We went camping in Dorset years ago and in the evening at dusk they hatched out and up popped hundreds of them, all bumbling around and in our tent. The site owner had to help everyone shoo the blinking things out.

Happy gardening.

They are quite a threat to farmers & forests, so destroy.

We have a few of the beetles bumbling about on warm evenings in May every year. They look really improbable flying around and make a loud hum. I never knew they were seriously detrimental to plants.
Having read the web page that Kildermorie's link goes to, I think I'll continue to tolerate them - the adults are so amazing and they seem a lot less destructive than, say, vine weevils.

The adults are not so destructive, Beattie - it's their grubs that cause the destuction by eating the roots of anything in their path. But you can't have the adults without the dreaded grubs maturing into the adults - and off goes the cycle again. :o(

Thank you everyone for your replies. He went into my wheelie bin along with all the other compost to be in muddy, weedy bliss until the great mincer from the sky mushes him when the recycling lorry arrives next week. I have to say my gut feeling was that I didn't want to keep him and I certainly didn't like the way his big mouth kept opening and his arms perpetually waved! I think one less of those in the environment can only be a relief! I did have a May bug fly into the kitchen a few years back and am not keen to repeat that experience either! Thanks again.