Adults are about 15 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Pyrrhopoda marginicollis
A Madagascan flower chafer that accumulated four separate names before taxonomists recognised one variable species.
About this species
Pyrrhopoda marginicollisKraatz, 1893
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Pyrrhopoda marginicollis is an endemic Madagascan flower chafer about 15 mm long. Several later names are now treated as synonyms, reflecting substantial variation in its colour pattern.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Scarabaeidae · Cetoniinae · Pyrrhopoda
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 sap, fruit and flowers.
Day-active adult.
Sugary plant fluids as adults; decomposing organic matter as larvae.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
At least four names — bisignata, immaculata, ornatissima and sellata — were later absorbed into P. marginicollis, showing how one variable beetle repeatedly persuaded specialists that they had found something new.
The species name points to the contrasting margin of the pronotum, a narrow boundary whose shape and colour must be judged together with the underside and elytra to avoid another false split.
Despite being only around fifteen millimetres long, the adult can open membranous hind wings from beneath rigid elytra and move rapidly between isolated fruit, flower and sap resources.