Click a picture to see a larger view.
Here is a collection of photos trying to illustrate the life cycle of this beautiful beetle (15-21mm long).
Please visit the Colchester Natural History Museum, or contact me if you have found some of their larvae or adults.
The results of the 2007 Colchester Rose Chafer Survey seem to indicate that at present Colchester records are the only ones for the whole of Essex, see Species account, Essex Field Club.
Attention: Unfortunately there are quite a few websites giving the wrong information about this European flower chafer.
Links:
References:
Contact: Maria Fremlin.
Last updated December 2009.
All photos were taken in Colchester, Essex, CO3 3AT, UK, which seems to have an interesting hot-spot for rose chafers.
You may also you may enter your records directly in the Essex Field Club, for that all you have to do is to visit
http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/portal/p/rose+chafer+survey, click on logon, and then follow the instructions.
All records of imagos, larvae, and null ones will be very appreciated.
This is probably due to the fact that in North America *rose chafers* refer to leaf chafers, which feed on fresh roots. Cetonia aurata feeds on decomposing organic matter.
LA CÉTOINE DORÉE (Cetonia aurata)! (Coléoptère Cetoniidae) - A very informative page by André Lequet who has followed the whole life cycle and is showing pictures of their eggs.
Wikipedia page for Cetonia aurata
How to sex Cetonid larvae - Interesting photos of the terminal ampullae (Herold organ), by Serge Mallet.
Cetonia aurata semiochemical, Pherobase. They do smell very strongly when distressed. Now we know that it probably is anethole.
Chinery M (2005) Collins Complete British Insects (Collins).
Englund R (1993) Movement patterns of Cetonia beetles (Scarabaeidae) among flowering Viburnum opulus (Caprifoliaceae). Oecologia 94:295-302.
Fremlin M (2008) Know Your Chafers, Nature in North-East Essex, 40-45. [PDF]
Jessop L (1987) Dung Beetles and Chafers (Scarabaeoidea), 2nd ed.
Karolyi F, Gorb SN, Krenn HW (2009) Trapping pollen by the moist mouth: strucutre and function of the mouthparts in the flower visiting Cetonia aurata (Scarabeidae, Coleoptera). Arthropod-Plant Interactions 3:1-8. [PDF]
Tashiro H (1990) Insecta: Coleoptera, Scarabaeida Larvae, Soil Biology Guide, Edited by Daniel L. Dindal.