Mediterranean spotted chafer
The Mediterranean spotted chafer is a small black beetle with a bronze shine, sprinkled all over with little white spots. When it is young, it is also covered in fine white hairs, but they rub off as it gets older. It loves to sit in light-coloured flowers, especially white ones.
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Fun facts
It likes white flowers best, which makes it easy to spot sitting on them.
When it is colder than about 18 degrees, it hardly flies at all.
The grown-ups usually have six white spots in two rows on the back of the neck, and many more on the wing cases.
The young beetle stays in its little soil room all winter and only comes out in spring.
Its larva is much bigger than the beetle, up to about 2 centimetres long.
Most asked questions about Mediterranean spotted chafer
?Is the Mediterranean spotted chafer harmful?
Not to people. It can damage flowers and fruit tree blossoms in gardens.
?What does the Mediterranean spotted chafer eat?
Pollen and flower parts, especially of light-coloured flowers like roses and fruit tree blossoms.
?How big is the Mediterranean spotted chafer?
It is about 8 to 12 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Oxythyrea funesta
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Cetoniidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Cetoniidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- White spotted rose beetle, Rose chafer
Where the facts come from
- Oxythyrea funesta (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 Ivar Leidus. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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