Jabba the Hutt turns up in my garden

The removal of dangerous leylandii from my new garden continues apace, and today my tree surgeon came to the house to tell me he'd found something under the rotting bole of a dead 300-year old pear tree.

There it was, poking up out of the ground, all large and white and fleshy.

For those who like their Star Wars, it was like a miniature version of one of the films' baddies, Jabba the Hutt, who is depicted as a bloated, pale, slug-like thing with little arms.

My Jabba had six little arms, and I'm pleased to say turned out to be a goodie, not a baddie. It is a larva of the rare and declining Stag Beetle, the first I've ever seen in the flesh.

Last year I saw an adult Stag Beetle in the garden, but to know that they actually breed here was such a thrill. The blind larvae eat rotting roots and buried wood and on such a diet it can take them up to six years to reach maturity.

I reckon that the difficulties of digesting such unpalatable material might be the reason why their body is so large - it is probably all gut!

It's incredible to think that it will then metamorphose into a pupa, probably next autumn, and then emerge from being something so squidgy into the armour-plated adult.

Knowing that a rare species is in your garden helps focus your efforts to give nature a home. For me, I now know that if I can keep a supply of dead wood from broadleaved trees buried in the soil, I'm likely to keep my population of mini Jabbas going.