eTawau > Insects of Borneo > Beetles > Scarabaeidae, Kinabalu Park HQ, 2009

Species record · Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae

A metallic green scarab at Kinabalu Park Headquarters

One adult that flew in clumsily and landed beside the car park of Kinabalu Hall (Dewan Kinabalu), 16 December 2009, 13:37

A large, oval, bright metallic green beetle with reddish-brown legs and a small fan-shaped antennal club, resting among grass and small leafy plants.
13:37:17, where it landed, from above.
The same beetle on the palm of a hand: glossy metallic green, finely pitted, with a large triangular scutellum and long reddish legs ending in hooked claws.
13:39:36, on the photographer's palm, for scale.

Both cropped and reduced from the camera originals; nothing else changed.

The record

DateWednesday 16 December 2009
Time13:37–13:39, early afternoon, cool weather
PlaceBeside the car park of Kinabalu Hall (Dewan Kinabalu), Kinabalu Park Headquarters, Sabah. 103 km by road from Kota Kinabalu International Airport (Google Maps)
HabitatLow bushes, grass and ferns at the edge of the car park, in the hill forest round the park headquarters
BehaviourFlew clumsily across in front of us, landed in the bushes and did not fly again
NumberOne, adult
SizeNot measured; photographed on an adult's palm for scale
CameraCanon PowerShot A470, two frames, no flash
ObserverWong Fook Yee, on a family walk round the park headquarters during the 2009 Christmas trip
iNaturalistobservation 406013454

Identification

Order Coleoptera · Family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles).
Subfamily, genus and species not determined.
  • Antennae short, ending in a club of flattened plates (lamellae): the mark of the scarabs.
  • Front tibiae toothed along the outer edge, a digging leg.
  • Body heavy, oval and convex; upper side uniformly bright metallic green, glossy and finely punctured.
  • Pronotum broad and rounded at the sides; scutellum large and triangular; elytra smooth, without ribs.
  • No notch in the side margin of the elytra behind the shoulder, as there is in the flower chafers (Cetoniinae).
  • Legs long, dark reddish-brown with a metallic sheen; tibiae spined; long tarsi with strong hooked claws.

The heavy, clumsy flight and the plain elytral margin suggest one of the chafer groups (Rutelinae or Melolonthinae), but the characters that separate them, such as the claws and the mouthparts, cannot be read from these two photographs. The record stays at family.

Remarks

The second scarab on this site with a date and a place. The first, the three-horned rhinoceros beetle from Kampung Sayap (2022), belongs to the same family. This one was among many insects the family photographed at the park headquarters that day.

Related: Kinabalu Park, 16 December 2009 (travel log) · Green stick insect, Kinabalu Park HQ, 2011 · Beetles · Two pairs of wings · Insects of Borneo
Photographs © Wong Fook Yee. Locality, date, time and behaviour are the photographer's own; identification to family on iNaturalist. Record page written 5 October 2026.