Metallic Ride - _TNY_8391
The larvae of the marbled rose-chafer (Protaetia marmorata) live in the semi-degraded loose compost found inside hollow oaks, but as adults like this one, prefer nectar and pollen instead.
This is the second largest of the flower chafers (Cetoniinae) in Sweden - only the hermit beetle (Osmoderma eremita) is larger, but that one is much much rarer.
If you look on the pronotum (the "part between the head and the elytra covering the abdomen), you can see a small, round mite which was walking around on the beetle (I see it in different positions in the shots I took of this one). I don't know if this is a parasitic mite or a phoretice one (ie using the beetle as a mean of transportation).
Here is a very colourful shot of the same beetle on a corn flower where the mite has moved town to the forward part of the elytra: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53614502386/
Metallic Ride - _TNY_8391
The larvae of the marbled rose-chafer (Protaetia marmorata) live in the semi-degraded loose compost found inside hollow oaks, but as adults like this one, prefer nectar and pollen instead.
This is the second largest of the flower chafers (Cetoniinae) in Sweden - only the hermit beetle (Osmoderma eremita) is larger, but that one is much much rarer.
If you look on the pronotum (the "part between the head and the elytra covering the abdomen), you can see a small, round mite which was walking around on the beetle (I see it in different positions in the shots I took of this one). I don't know if this is a parasitic mite or a phoretice one (ie using the beetle as a mean of transportation).
Here is a very colourful shot of the same beetle on a corn flower where the mite has moved town to the forward part of the elytra: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53614502386/