Pine Chafer - Polyphylla fullo

With a body length of up to 3.8 cm this is a large beetle. The black, brown, or reddish brown elytra have a characteristic marble design of white or pale lemony-yellow spots. The female is slightly larger than the male, but lacks the enormous scent detecting flaps of the male antennae.

In and around pine woods especially on sandy soil but usually only encountered as a vagrant in Britain.

June to August.

Stridulates loudly. Adults feed on pine needles; larvae feed on roots of sedges and grasses. The females deposit their eggs in the soil.

A vagrant that is rarely recorded in Britain.

Very rare in Leicestershire and Rutland. The Braunstone record of 11/07/2006 is believed to be the only VC55 record up to the end of 2014.