Cetonia aurata

Cetonia aurata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Family:	Scarabaeidae
Subfamily:	Cetoniinae
Genus:	Cetonia
Species:	C. aurata
Binomial name
Cetonia aurata (Linnaeus, 1758)

Cetonia aurata, known as the rose chafer, or more rarely as the green rose chafer, is a beetle, 20 mm (¾ in) long, that has metallic green coloration (but can be bronze, copper, violet, blue/black or grey) with a distinct V shaped scutellum, the small triangular area between the wing cases just below the thorax, and having several other irregular small white lines and marks. The underside is a coppery colour.

Overview

The flight pattern of a rose chafer

Side view

Rose chafers are capable of very fast flight; they do it with their wing cases down thus resembling a bumble bee. They feed on flowers, nectar and pollen, in particular roses (from where they get their name); which is where they can be found on warm sunny days, between May and June/July, occasionally to September.

The cetonia aurata pulls the feets inside of the legs and push them out if it is needed.

The larvae are C–shaped, have a very firm wrinkled hairy body, a very small head and tiny legs; they move on their backs, which is a very quick way to identify them. Larvae overwinter wherever they have been feeding, that is in compost, manure, leafmould or rotting wood, and they pupate in June/July. Some adult beetles might emerge in the autumn, but the main emergence is in the spring when they mate. Following mating, the females lay their eggs in decaying organic matter, and then die. Larvae grow very fast, and before the end of autumn they would all have moulted twice. They have a two year life cycle.

Rose chafers are found over southern and central Europe and the southern part of the UK where they seem to be sometimes very localized. They are a very beneficial saprophagous species (detritivore), their larvae are the insect equivalent of earth worms and help make very good compost where they are often found in great numbers.

Colour

The metallic green colouring of the beetle's surface is the reflection of mostly circularly polarised light, typically left circularly polarized light. When viewed through a right circular polariser, they appear to be colourless.^[1] Many species of scarab beetles (scarabaeidae) are known to emit typically left circularly polarised light (see Circular polarization in nature).

outspread wings

In popular culture

In his book Synchronicity (1952), Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung tells this story, starring a Cetonia aurata, as an example of a synchronic event: A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream, I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window-pane from the outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to a golden scarab one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer (Cetonia aurata), which contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt the urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment. I must admit that nothing like it ever happened to me before or since.^[2]

See also

• Noble chafer, which can be very similar to the rose chafer. However one quick way to identify them is to look at their scutellum: on the noble chafer is an equilateral triangle but on the rose chafer is an isosceles triangle.
• Cetonia aurata is not to be confused with the North American rose chafer, Macrodactylus subspinosus.

References

1. ^ Hegedüsa, Ramón; Győző Szélb and Gábor Horváth (September 2006). "Imaging polarimetry of the circularly polarizing cuticle of scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Rutelidae, Cetoniidae)". Vision Research 46 (17): 2786–2797. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2006.02.007. PMID 16564066. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T0W-4JK4P8W-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=48b1e2d1ee5ea4fc86627e7a678ea0c0. Retrieved 2009-05-26. 
2. ^ The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, paragraph 843, Princeton University Press Edition.

External links

• La Cétoine Dorée (Cetonia aurata) (Coléoptère Cetoniidae)
• Photos of Cetonia aurata
• Photos of Rose chafer - Cetonia aurata and other flower beetles.
• Article on 'drunken beetles', not Cetonia aurata though.
• Rose chafer Cetonia aurata, some life cycle photos.
• Cetonia aurata and its circularly polarized reflections (both left and right hand.)