Adults are approximately 20–30 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Phrosyne viridis
A green Madagascan longhorn whose familiar subspecies name has been absorbed into a full species.
About this species
Phrosyne viridis(Audinet-Serville, 1834)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
The gallery’s three-part name Phrosyne brevicornis viridis is now treated as a synonym of Phrosyne viridis. It is a metallic Madagascan longhorn documented from humid eastern rainforest, with dark limbs and elongated antennae contrasting against the green body.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Cerambycidae · Phrosyne
Accepted species; Phrosyne brevicornis viridis is treated as a synonym. · checked 2026-07-15
MadagascarBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Madagascar
Humid forest, including eastern reserves such as Vohimana.
Adults occur on foliage, trunks and flowers.
Larvae develop in wood; adults may take plant fluids or pollen.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
The gallery name records an abandoned taxonomic idea: what was once treated as the viridis form of P. brevicornis is now recognised under the full species name Phrosyne viridis.
Living records from Vohimana connect an 1834 museum name to Madagascar’s humid eastern rainforest, where the green body, black legs and long antennae fragment the beetle’s outline among wet foliage.
The accepted species survived several changes of rank and combination while retaining the same diagnostic colour-and-structure package, demonstrating how a visually obvious beetle can still be taxonomically misread for generations.
Sources and scientific references
- GBIF — taxon record/search for Phrosyne viridis
- Catalogue of Life — taxon search for Phrosyne viridis
- GBIF synonym record — Phrosyne brevicornis viridis accepted as Phrosyne viridis
- Cerambycoidea — Phrosyne viridis record and Madagascar distribution
- Field photograph from Vohimana Reserve, Madagascar
- BioLib taxonomic search for Phrosyne viridis