280 days of Urbpandemonium #114

[urbpan]

Like its relative the Japanese beetle, the Oriental beetle is a hated pest of turfgrass. Not so much at our house since we treat our lawn with something between benign neglect and half-hearted maintenance. But people interested in a nice carpet of unbroken grass blades don't like the white C shaped larvae that grow into this beetle. They live in the soil, nibbling on the roots of the grass, killing sections of grass, leaving unsightly dead patches. The grown beetles don't make themselves any more welcome, feeding on roses and other ornamental flowers. Accidentally introduced from Asia, this invasive species is being battled with a natural enemy: a commercially available nematode that preys on the Oriental beetle grub.

I wrote that almost exactly 4 years ago, referring to the insect in this picture:

Looks pretty different but both are Exomala orientalis*. The species varies on a light to dark spectrum between the two extremes shown.



* Very outside, from the east