Thin, Green June Beetle
Sandy found this shiny green beetle in one of her raised-bed gardens on June 6, 2015. While it doesn’t look all that much like the big, brown scarab beetles that we normally call “June Beetles” around here, it does appear to be one of them, even though it is only about half an inch long.
In particular, it has the same kind of rump as other scarab beetles do.
It looks like one of the beetles in the genus Dichelonyx, a group of about 25 narrow-bodied june beetles that tend to have this reflective, metallic coloration.
While several of the ones in this genus that are posted to BugGuide look fairly close, none of them look like an exact match. But, since they only have 13 of the 25 known North American species, there are pretty good odds that they don’t have pictures of this species yet.
Anyway, like other june beetles the adults eat leaves, while the larvae live underground and eat roots, with a life cycle of 2 to 3 years. The adults are supposed to be particularly fond of conifer needles, and can defoliate trees when they are numerous enough. But, just one of them, like this one, is no big deal.
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I like it!