Conservationists have built miniature “thatched cottages” to save a rare beetle.

The scarlet malachite beetle is thought to use the thatch of real country cottages to lay eggs and hatch out its pink grub-like young, but exactly how it uses the thatch is still a mystery, wildlife experts said.

The thatched cottages need to be close to meadows with flowering grasses and good supplies of pollen.

Students can’t grasp driving theory

Wannabe British drivers are failing their theory tests scores of times, with one woman being unable to pass a record 110 times, it has been reported.

The woman, who was not named but is from southeast London, has the biggest number of failures under her belt, but is followed by many more including a 30-year-old man from Peterborough who has had 86 unsuccessful attempts.

The figures were published on the Mail Online following a Freedom of Information request to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.

Parking fine costs £10 per second

A charity worker has been fined £70 by a council after parking for seven seconds on zig-zag lines outside a school.

Joyce Sale was dropping off charity concert leaflets at the primary school when she was captured by a parking camera car operated by Birmingham City Council.

She then received a council letter in the post with details of the penalty notice, working out at £10 for every second her car was stopped.

Swithun’s gloom is predicted

Those who are superstitious should get their brollies at the ready as it is going to rain on St Swithun’s Day which, according to British folklore, means wet weather will continue for a further 40 days.

The saint’s feast day falls on July 15, when rain is forecast in the southeast of England, Northern Ireland and western parts of Wales. According to tradition, if it rains then, it will continue to do so for another 40 days but, if it is fair, it will also remain so for that period.

Gambling campaign backfires

An ad campaign warning of the perils of gambling that began as a bland public service announcement by Singapore’s government has turned into fodder for international mockery after Germany’s World Cup victory.

In the ad, a boy named Andy tells his friends in the playground that his father has used all of his savings to bet on Germany to win. Sad piano music plays and a message says: “Often, the people who suffer from problem gambling aren’t the gamblers.” But as the Germans kept winning, the mocking of the ad intensified, with many wondering if Andy and his father were going to make a killing on the bet.

After Germany’s 1-0 win in the final, Facebook pages were full of congratulatory messages for Andy and his father, with a few suggesting the two were off to Germany for a holiday.

Florida concert beneath waves

Nearly 500 divers and snorkellers submerged in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary for a “concert” beneath the sea broadcast by a local radio station.

The 30th annual Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival, held at Looe Key Reef along the continental United States’s only living coral barrier reef, featured four hours of ad-free music piped below the surface via a series of underwater speakers. “We started this as an arts and cultural event 30 years ago [and] thought it would be a one-time thing,” said event co-founder Bill Becker. “It’s the only place we know of where music is put underwater for divers, snorkellers and the marine life.”

The water-themed playlist included such tunes as the Beatles’ Octopus’s Garden and the themes from Disney’s The Little Mermaid and television classic Flipper about a dolphin at a marine preserve in southern Florida. Participants described the music as clear and ethereal, with underwater visibility of about 15 metres.