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Flower Chafer

Heterorrhina elegans

Description:

Large, flying insect. Jewel green with two black patches in some and an orangey-gold wash on the wings in some others. Tiny lines, somewhat like running stitch can be seen in clsoeups of the dorsal surface. Wikipedia says the colours are entirely structural, not produced by pigments. Seems the colours can stay put for 200 years!

Habitat:

I put out over ripe bananas for a civet cat that used to be a regular but now does not come everyday. These flowerchafers are getting drunk on the banana juice. Initially juts one; yesterday I had three of these. My first sighting in Kolkata.

Notes:

I saw on so embedded and actually upside down...in the banana that an at was attacking it and it could not move...I wonder if the juice had fermented and it was drunk. i intervened and set it upright whereupon it flew clumsily away.

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4 Comments

SukanyaDatta
SukanyaDatta 3 years ago

Thank you Neil. What with lockdown and pure panic confined to house means limited opportunities but sometimes the bugs and birds come to say hello and I am able to photograph...it is great to be able to get back on PN now that the computer is ok again

Neil Ross
Neil Ross 3 years ago

That is a beautiful beetle, and such a lovely colour. Thanks for sharing, Sukanya.

SukanyaDatta
SukanyaDatta 3 years ago

Thank you, Mark. True...it is a gorgeous colour...and over ripe bananas are real magnets...I tell you. moths, butterflies, ants, bulbuls, babblers, crows, rufous tree pies, the occasional parakeet, lizards (house geckoes), civet cats...they all love it. There is one recipe for over ripe bananas that I used to love as a child but now I believe this is a better way (no calories for me too !)

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 3 years ago

Wow that's a stunning colour. Great use for spare bananas too. I might try that here.

SukanyaDatta
Spotted by
SukanyaDatta

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Spotted on Jun 8, 2020
Submitted on Jun 9, 2020

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