I’m a little late in reporting this, but late in the evening on August 4th, while out photographing moths, I was struck on the head repeatedly by this large beetle — a Spotted Pelidnota Beetle (Pelidnota punctata). It was a little larger and more robust than the “June Bug” beetles that we see around here at night in early summer. The body was probably about 25mm or so long. It was very active, whizzing in big arcs around the mercury vapor lamp. It was also rather wreckless, colliding with me numerous times before buzzing off to momentarily rest on a leaf before resuming its erratic flight. Also known as the Grapevine Beetle, this member of the Scarab Beetle family (Scarabaeidae), subfamily Rutelinae, feeds on grape and other foliage, while its larvae live in and feed on rotting roots and wood.
Interesting phenological snippet: While doing some catch-up reading of Aydin Örstan’s Snail’s Tales blog the other night, I noticed that he had posted a photo of a similar beetle on August 15th, and had linked to a post about a sighting of another of the same beetles on Alex Wild’s Myrmecos Blog.
