| Polyphylla fullo | |
|---|---|
| Polyphylla fullo, Female. | |
| Polyphylla fullo, Male | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Family: | Scarabaeidae |
| Subfamily: | Melolonthinae |
| Genus: | Polyphylla |
| Species: | P. fullo |
| Binomial name | |
| Polyphylla fullo (Linnaeus, 1758) |
|
Polyphylla fullo is a beetle belonging to the Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae subfamily.
Contents |
Polyphylla fullo is the largest of the European Melolonthinae, attaining a length of 38 mm, and certainly one of the most beautiful species of beetles.
The body is robust and convex and more or less reddish brown or blackish. It is covered with fine white pubescence which forms elegant marbled spots.
Its most prominent feature, however, is the antennal "fan", which reaches a considerable size in males, and gives a distinctive appearance to this insect.
The adult lives and feed on the foliage of the pines, while the larvae live on Graminaceae and Cyperaceae.
Polyphylla fullo is found in North Africa and Europe. It occurs most frequently in central and southern Europe, but it is almost everywhere rare. Its northern boundary is the south of Sweden, the eastern Balkans and the Caucasus.
It inhabits sandy habitats, such as the edge of a sunny pine forests, vineyards, or dunes.