billywitchn.
/ˈbɪlɪwɪtʃ/, U.S. /ˈbɪliˌwɪtʃ/ English regional (Suffolk).
A cockchafer.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Coleoptera or beetles and weevils > [noun] > Polyphaga (omnivorous) > superfamily Lamellicornia Scarabaeoidea > family Scarabaeidae > genus Melolontha > member of (cockchafer)
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billywitch1933
1933 Times 19 July 8/4 I do not know in what part of Suffolk they call cockchafers ‘butterwitches,’ but round here [i.e. in Beccles] they are called ‘billywitches’.
1935 F. Rolfe I walked by Night xvi. 167 The mole do a lot of good and destroy many wire worms, and the lavare of the Billywitch or Cockchafer.
1954 A. O. D. Claxton Suffolk Dial. 20th Cent. 20 Billywitch, the cock-chafer. Also called ‘butterwitch’ and ‘cock-horny-bug’.
1999 Billywitch in uk.local.east-anglia (Usenet newsgroup) 1 July At this time of year we alway get a large flying insect, about half inch long, fat and hard shelled. They..are locally known as billywitches.
2013 @kayliegunn 19 July in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Sitting in the garden, but worried as I can hear a billywitch! #suffolkthing?
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1933