Adults are about 19–24 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Euchroea vadoni
A highland flower chafer wearing a temporary matte veil over a brilliant underlying shell.
About this species
Euchroea vadoniRuter, 1974
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Euchroea vadoni is a Madagascan flower chafer described from the Itremo massif. Adults are broad, dark and yellow-marked, with a surface bloom that can make the beetle look matte until it is rubbed away.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Scarabaeidae · Cetoniinae · Euchroea
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Central Madagascar, including the Itremo massifBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Central Madagascar, including the Itremo massif
Rocky and montane landscapes with remnant vegetation around 1,600 m and above.
Warm-season adult.
Sugary plant fluids as an adult; decaying organic matter as a larva.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
The type series came from the Itremo massif at roughly 1,615 metres, giving this spectacular beetle an origin in one of Madagascar’s isolated highland landscapes rather than the tropical lowlands.
The apparent dullness is partly a removable surface coating: where that bloom is worn away, the underlying cuticle becomes conspicuously glossy, so age and abrasion visibly rewrite the beetle’s finish.
Its third-instar larva was later described from only two specimens — unusually valuable evidence in a subfamily where the immature stages of the overwhelming majority of named species remain unknown.