Subject: A fuzzy scarab?
Location: Hudson, Florida
April 14, 2014 7:28 pm
This one was interesting! It was very sleepy when we found it and not very interested in going back outside. Haha. We tried to research what it could be and narrowed it to some kind of scarab but we were lost after that point. Any ideas?
Signature: Madde and Michaela
Hi Madde and Michaela,
WE agree that this fuzzy little guy is a Scarab Beetle, but we have not had any luck identifying the species on BugGuide either. We will try to get some assistance in this identification.
Update: We just approved a comment suggesting this might be a Bumble Bee Scarab in the family Glaphyridae, and we had considered that possibility, but we thought it didn’t look exactly like the individuals posted on BugGuide. We wrote to Eric Eaton to see if he can provide an identification. At this time, we have not yet heard back from Eric.
Eric Eaton provides an broad identification
Daniel:
At least you correctly identified it as a scarab! I was confounded by a similar beetle here in Colorado a couple years ago.
I’m pretty certain this is a May Beetle of some kind, genus Phyllophaga, but I can’t find a match in Bugguide or anywhere else, either. I’ll see if I can get something more specific if I have permission to post the images to a Facebook group or two?
Still no word on the Dolerus sawfly swarm mystery, sorry.
Eric
Oh yes! Go ahead and post it. I hope we can figure out what it is eventually! It was such a friendly little guy too. =P Good luck and let us know if you find anything!
-Michaela and Madde
Hey, I think that adorable fuzzy scarab may be a bumble bee scarab from the family glaphyridae. Here’s bug guide link. Let me know if you concur!
http://bugguide.net/node/view/14300
Thanks Karen,
We wrote to Eric Eaton to get his opinion. Something about the shape of the submitted Scarab seems very different than the Bumble Bee Scarab, which we did consider. We didn’t want to post that until we got a second opinion, but it is our first choice as well.
Hello! This is Michaela, one of the people who submitted this beetle. We think we have found what it is! It seems to be a Phyllophaga crenulata! This one just seemed to be exceptionally fuzzy. It doesn’t have a common name. Madde has dubbed it “fuzzbutt beetle”
Thanks for getting back to us on this three year old mystery.