The rose chafer (Cetonia aurata) is a metallic green scarab beetle roughly 20 mm long, found across southern and central Europe east through the Palearctic to parts of Asia. Adults are diurnal pollen and floral-tissue feeders, visiting open flowers of roses, elder, hawthorn, and umbellifers on warm summer days from May to September, occasionally into October. Larvae are strictly detritivorous, developing over one to two years in decaying wood, leaf mould, compost, or manure. In gardens with flowering elder or open-structured perennials, adults are occasional flower visitors that incidentally transfer pollen.

Pollen plants · 3

Southern and central Europe, including the UK (where it is widespread but locally scarce in England and Wales); extends through North Africa and across the Palearctic into parts of Asia.