Horned Rutelinae, Flower Beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae)

Horned Rutelinae, flower beetles or May beetles are insects of Coleoptera Order. They belong Rutelini Tribe, and distribute in South East Asia. Males of insects are typical with a developed mandibles forming a pair of horns which are absent in females, in case of Peperonota, the hind part of pronotum forming a drosal horn.

Same to other members of Rutelini, horned Rutelinae feed on pendants and other parts of flowers so the mature forms usually be found in flower season. Their also be considered as a factor of pollen transferring of their host plans. Their host plans mainly belong to Magnoliaceae and Annonaceae which wide distribute in the oriental area. The mature eats pollen, pendant for their food, not same to other member of most scarab beetles so they can not be bred with the jelly, it is the key for insect breeder who want to make generations of this kind of insect at home. The mature beetles be attracted by light and their habitat are tropical forest with hemi-tropical climate. Elevation of their habitat from 200m to more than 1500m. However until now, the detail of biology and ecology of life cycle of horned rutelinae have not been understood well.

The taxonomical works on horned rutelinae be done mainly in 10 recent years. This group consist of about 50 species and subspecies and distribute in 8 genera: Kibakoganea, Dicaulocephalus, Didrepanephorus, Pukupuku, Fruhstorferia, Ceroplophana, Masumotokoganea, and Peperonota.

Male of Ceroplophana malaysiana malaysiana Kuijten, 1977 (Do Collection)

Peperonota cristata Arrow 1917 (Do Collection)

Masumotokoganea kinabalensis (Ohaus 1932) large male (Do Collection)

Masumotokoganea kinabalensis (Ohaus 1932) small male (Do Collection)

Didrepanephorus yunnanus yunnanus (Ohaus 1911) (Do Collection)

Didrepanephorus takuyai (Muramoto 2003) (Do Collection)

Fruhstoreferia javana javana Kolbe 1894 (Do Collection)

Pukupuku curta (Arrow, 1929) Co-Type (Do Collection)