Adults are roughly 15–22 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Micropeltus cingulatus
A tiny Madagascan flower chafer crossed by a sharply bounded belt of pale scales.
About this species
Micropeltus cingulatus(Gory & Percheron, 1835)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Micropeltus cingulatus is a small Madagascan flower chafer whose defining feature is a clean transverse band across the body. The band is formed by densely arranged pale scales and remains sharply bounded across the curved shell, creating the appearance of a belt laid over dark armour.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Scarabaeidae · Cetoniinae · Micropeltus
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
MadagascarBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Madagascar
Forest and forest edge where adults visit ripe fruit, sap and flowers.
Day-active in warm conditions.
Sugary plant fluids as adults; decomposing organic matter as larvae.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
A clean transverse band crosses the body like a belt, the feature captured by cingulatus — girdled — in the original description.
The band is made from densely packed pale scales rather than a change in the underlying shell, so wear can expose the darker cuticle beneath.
The precise band remains aligned across the curved wing cases, requiring thousands of microscopic scales to form one continuous body-wide pattern.