Glorious scarab
The glorious scarab is a bright green beetle with shiny silver stripes, like it is wearing a jewel. The stripes shine because of the tiny way its shell is built, not because of paint. It lives in the mountains where juniper trees grow.
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Fun facts
Very rarely, a glorious scarab is red or purple instead of green.
Its shiny colours come from tiny layers in its shell that bounce light back, like a mirror.
It is active both in the day and at night, mostly from June to August.
When it visits flowers, it carries pollen from one bloom to the next and helps plants make seeds.
Most asked questions about Glorious scarab
?Why is the glorious scarab so shiny?
The tiny shape of its shell bounces light back as bright green and silver.
?What does the glorious scarab eat?
The beetles eat juniper leaves, and the grubs eat rotting sycamore wood.
?How big is the glorious scarab?
It is about 2 to 3 centimetres long.
Myth buster
Myth: The glorious scarab is an endangered beetle.
Truth: Not true. It has never been listed as endangered, and in some places there are lots of them.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chrysina gloriosa
- Named by
- LeConte, 1854
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Glorious beetle
Where the facts come from
- Chrysina gloriosa (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by cogdogblog. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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