This is a list of 116 species in the genus Macrodactylus, rose chafers.
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Macrodactylus known as rose chafers are a genus in the family Scarabaeidae. There are at least 110 described species in Macrodactylus.
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Rose chafers are capable of fast flight; they fly with their wing cases down. They feed on pollen, nectar, and flowers, especially roses. They can be found among roses on warm sunny days from May until June or July, and occasionally as late as September. Rose chafers are found in southern and central Europe and in the southern part of the United Kingdom, where they sometimes seem to be very localized.
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After adult rose chafers emerge in late May to mid-June, they aggregate on leaves, buds, flowers, and fruit, in order to feed and mate. By chewing on plant tissues, the rose chafer induces the release of volatile compounds from the plant. Using their antennae, rose chafers can detect the plant compounds in the air and orient themselves in the direction of the feeding conspecific, leading to an aggregation of the beetles. Male rose chafers also orient themselves preferentially toward virgin females as opposed to mated females, though it is unknown whether they are detecting pheromones released by virgin females, or the release of plant volatiles induced by the feeding virgin females.
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The adult beetle feeds on the foliage, flowers, and fruit of many plants including grapes, apples, peaches, chestnuts, roses, and other garden flowers and fruits. On roses it skeletonizes the leaves, which can be rather bothersome for avid gardeners. Rose chafers are also a problem for vineyards as they eat the grapes at bloom as well as skeletonize the leaves. They also tend to appear suddenly and in swarms, and vines with over 100 rose chafers per plant have been observed.
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Macrodactylus subspinosus is a North American beetle of the family Scarabaeidae. The members of this genus are known as "rose chafers", not to be confused with the European "rose chafer", Cetonia aurata. M. subspinosus occurs from Eastern Canada to Colorado and is considered a pest of many crops and flowers. It is given its common name of rose chafer because it eats the leaves of roses, although it also feeds on many other plants.
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Many scarabs are scavengers that recycle dung, carrion, or decaying plant material. Others, such as the Japanese beetle, are plant-eaters. Some of the well-known beetles from the Scarabaeidae are Japanese beetles, dung beetles, June beetles, rose chafers (Australian, European, and North American), rhinoceros beetles, Hercules beetles and Goliath beetles. Several members of this family have structurally coloured shells which act as left-handed circular polarisers; this was the first-discovered example of circular polarization in nature.
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The rose chafer has a yellowish-tan coloured body that is about in length, with wings that do not completely cover the abdomen. The beetle has six long, spiny, reddish-brown legs that gradually become darker towards the end of the appendage. It has two short lamellate antennae that end in a club of flat plates and it has chewing mouthparts. Rose chafers are covered in dull yellow hairs which give the body its characteristic colour, however with age and with normal activity the hairs are worn off the head and thorax revealing a black colour.
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The reflected components in the p and s linear polarizations are found by applying the Fresnel coefficients of reflection, which are generally different for those two linear polarizations. Only in the special case of normal incidence, where there is no distinction between p and s, are the Fresnel coefficients for the two components identical, leading to the above property. A 3-slide series of pictures taken with and without a pair of masterImage 3D circularly polarized movie glasses of some dead European rose chafers (Cetonia aurata) whose shiny green color comes from left-polarized light. Note that without glasses both the beetles and their images have shiny color.
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