Thursday, May 15, 2008

Why AZ is pretty rad: Chrysina gloriosa


I still remember when I saw my first Chrysina gloriosa 4 years ago, the iridescent green and silver orb clunked into my black-light, confused and disoriented. It made me wonder, what evolutionary forces resulted in such brilliant metallic coloration on a beetle that is mostly active only at night. Last year during the monsoons, these beetles were at times, the most common scarabs to come to my black light.