Chafer Beetle

Description:

Scarabaeidae; Melolonthinae; Leucopholis irrorata Chevrolat, 1841. Many insects have some feature of their anatomy which makes them stand out from others and gives them instant recognition. In the case of L. irrorata, for me, it is the enormous frons which looks like an oversize bonnet. The frons, the pronotum and the elytra are all brownish in colour and sprinkled with a myriad of tiny light coloured spots. https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/30023...

Habitat:

This beetle was spotted on a young sapling Mango Tree (Mangifera indica) in a plant pot in our front yard.

Notes:

L. irrorata is a pest of Sugarcane, Rice and Maize in Philippines:- "According to Lopez (1931a, b) L. irrorata is one of the major pests of sugarcane in the Philippines. It is also considered a principal pest of rice and maize in localized fields in upland areas in Batangas Province, Luzon, Philippines (Apostol and Litsinger, 1976; Litsinger et al., 1983). Infestation results in the loss of young maize stands and in perennial damage to maize, particularly in fields near the flight trees of adults in areas where the dominant crop is sugarcane." https://www.plantwise.org/knowledgebank/...