Adults are about 15–17 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Pygora ornata
A beetle described as polished black, red-patched and white-spotted — an entire heraldic pattern compressed into 15 millimetres.
About this species
Pygora ornataJanson, 1876
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Pygora ornata is an endemic Madagascan flower chafer whose original 1876 description records a glossy black body, striate elytra, a red discal patch and four white spots.
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 with flowers and ripe fruit.
Day-active adult.
Sugary plant fluids as an adult; decomposing organic matter as a larva.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Janson’s original description specifies four white spots arranged over black striate wing cases and a red central patch, a pattern precise enough to recognise the species almost 150 years later.
The pygidium is strongly convex and the elytra are longitudinally engraved, so the animal’s ornament is three-dimensional sculpture rather than a flat arrangement of coloured paint.
A surviving museum type preserves the physical standard for the name: every disputed Pygora ornata identification can ultimately be compared with the nineteenth-century specimen itself.