rose chafer

Brightly coloured insect occurring mainly in the tropics.

In the adult stage rose chafers feed on tender shoots and floral parts of plants or on the sap exuded from trees. In contrast, the larvae are generally found in soil, where they attack the roots of most plants, and hence are agricultural pests. Some also inhabit decaying wood, leaf litter, and other plant refuse. There are about 2,500 species.

Classification The rose chafer is in subfamily Cetoniinae, family Scarabaeidae, order Coleoptera, class Insecta, phylum Arthropoda.