American rose chafer
The American rose chafer is a slim, yellowish tan beetle with long, spiny reddish legs. It is covered in dull yellow hairs. It got its name because it loves to eat rose leaves, but it munches lots of other plants too.
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Fun facts
As it gets older, its yellow hairs rub off and it looks darker, so you can tell old beetles from young ones.
It eats rose leaves until only a lacy skeleton of veins is left.
When one beetle starts eating a plant, the plant gives off a smell that calls more beetles, so they gather in big crowds.
More than 100 rose chafers have been seen on just one grape vine.
A grown-up beetle lives for only 3 to 6 weeks.
Most asked questions about American rose chafer
?What does the rose chafer eat?
Leaves, flowers and fruit of roses, grapes, apples and many other plants.
?Is the rose chafer dangerous?
Not to people. It does not sting, but it can damage gardens and vineyards.
?How big is the American rose chafer?
About 8 to 13 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Macrodactylus subspinosus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Scarabaeidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Scarabaeidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Rose chafer
Where the facts come from
- Macrodactylus subspinosus (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 Susan Ellis, , Bugwood.org. CC BY 3.0 us, 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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