Green chafer
This shining green scarab is one of the most destructive pests of Ryukyu Island sugarcane, and mass light-trapping is now used to suppress its outbreaks.
| Where | Farmland and sugarcane fields in Japan |
|---|---|
| Size | 15 to 26 mm body length |
| When | June to September |
The Green chafer is an oval, shining green beetle, occasionally reddish or olive, measuring roughly 15 to 26 mm in body length. It belongs to the same leaf-chafer group as other Anomala species found across East Asia.
Adults emerge from May to late July and feed on foliage at night, while larvae live in the soil feeding on the roots of sugarcane, sweet potato and other crops; heavy outbreaks have caused serious damage to sugarcane in the Ryukyu Islands.
Traits
Habitat
Farmland
Colour
Green, Metallic
Active
Night
To people
Harmless to people; a foliage-feeding pest of crops rather than a biting or stinging insect.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
A similarly shaped, shining scarab of overlapping size, but with a darker, coppery grey-green to bronze-green sheen rather than the plain rich green of the Green chafer.
Questions
Is the Green chafer dangerous to people?
Harmless to people; a foliage-feeding pest of crops rather than a biting or stinging insect.
When can you see the Green chafer?
The Green chafer can be seen from June to September, at night.
Plate retouched from a photo by Jiro Iguchi, CC BY 4.0, iNaturalist Licence
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Last updated 2026-09-27. Every entry is checked against published sources.