Mimela splendens is a shiny green chafer beetle that lives across East Asia, including Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan; in Japan it is the beetle simply called kogane-mushi ('golden bug'). It is not found in the United States. Adults chew the leaves of broadleaf trees, and the grubs feed on roots underground.
Appearance
- Appearance
- About ¾ in. (17–23 mm) long, with a strong metallic sheen. Most are golden green, but some have a reddish-purple tint, and a few are fully reddish purple or blackish purple.
Look-alikes
Japanese beetles are smaller (about ⅝ in., 15 mm), with copper-colored wing covers, a green head and thorax, and a row of white hair tufts along each side. This species has no white tufts, and its wing covers are usually the same green as the rest of the body.
Why they get mixed upBoth are shiny Asian chafers, and the Japanese beetle is a familiar garden pest across much of the eastern and central US.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Forests
- Woodland edges
- Range
- Native to Japan (Hokkaido to Kyushu), the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, China, eastern Siberia, and Myanmar. It does not occur in the US.
Behavior
- Diet
- Adults eat the leaves of broadleaf trees such as oaks and cherries; grubs eat roots in the soil.
- Overwintering
- Overwinters as a grub.
Life cycle
- Larva
- The grubs live in the soil and feed on roots; development from egg to adult takes one to two years.
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