Large Scarab

It's fun. . lol. And good practice. :) You should go to school for biology, or are you already?. I'm going for my Fisheries and Wildlife Management degree. Bugs can be a real pain in the butt to identify, but the worst is mushrooms. I usually give up on a lot of mushrooms..lol.

Ok now thats definately a chafer or scarab from the photo you sent me, other than it not being on the flower it could almost pass as the same bug! Thank you, I will update my info!

Doesn't have a specific common name. Just chafer or scarab. But scientific name should be correct. Try antennae in this picture. :)

http://bugguide.net/node/view/667067

And I already corrected on the Hermit Beetle, lol.

Hm, it's hard to see the antennae from the picture, as they are shadowed by the head, but from other pictures it looks like they probably are angled antennae. I disagree about the body though. They are very similar, including the triangle at the top of the back.

I don't think so, the Flower Chafer antennae look different and the shell looks glossier....and the Hermit Flower Beetle looks more like a June Bug, in that its shell looks thin, and allot glossier without the groves.

I'm sorry, just Flower Chafer. Hermit Flower Beetle, although almost identical, looks to have a smooth back. Guess they are closely related. Didn't read the info very well.

I was thinking hybrid for a minute too, lol. That's all I could think is that it looked like a mix between two beetles. The japanese and maybe a black weevil or something. But I'm pretty sure it's the Flower Chafer/ Hermit Flower Beetle

Found it, I think. Suggested in ID suggestion.

Maybe a hybrid of some sort, if you look at the shell and the groves, and compare it to the Japanese Beetle I captured on film, it looks like a bigger black version.

I know! That is what confuses me. I have never seen a beetle like this before, it was the size of a quarter. Japanese Beetles are green and smaller than this one was. Very curious.

Hmm. . the only beetle I seem to be finding in MI with those antennae is the Japanese Beetle, but it's color and striated back don't coincide. Guess to keep looking. Pretty photo though.