Adults are approximately 12–17 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Pygora lenocinia
A tiny Madagascan chafer whose metallic green and red body has remained recognisable for nearly two centuries.
About this species
Pygora lenocinia(Gory & Percheron, 1835)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Pygora lenocinia is an endemic Madagascan flower chafer described in 1835. Its compact, brightly contrasting body is distinguished from close relatives by the full combination of colour blocks, punctures and underside characters.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Scarabaeidae · Cetoniinae · Pygora
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
MadagascarBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Madagascar
Forest and forest-edge flowers, ripe fruit and sap sources.
Day-active adult.
Sugary plant fluids as an adult; decomposing organic material as a larva.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Living observations now connect an 1835 name based on preserved specimens to the same green-and-red beetle moving through modern Madagascan forest.
The name lenocinia remained accepted after Paulian’s genus-wide revision, surviving direct comparison with dozens of similarly compact, metallic Pygora that had accumulated around it.
Its identity is a stacked anatomical combination rather than one colour patch: pronotal shape, elytral punctures, underside characters and male structures must all agree before the specimen is truly P. lenocinia.