Shining like metal
Its colour comes from layers in its shell that bend the light, so it never fades, even after the beetle dies.
The Borneo rainforest · Beetles
Jewel beetle
Chrysochroa
A slim, bullet-shaped beetle of dazzling metallic green, with a red-copper stripe down each wing case.
- Size
- 3 to 5cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Forests of South-East Asia
Scurries after you, then takes off with a flash. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Jewel beetle
Good to know
Six things about the jewel beetle
Used as jewels
The wing cases of jewel beetles have been used in jewellery and decoration for centuries. A shrine in Japan made about 1,300 years ago is covered with thousands of them.
A lover of sunshine
It flies in the hottest part of the day, high round the tops of trees.
Hidden by its shine
Oddly, the glitter works as camouflage: among sunlit, glossy leaves it is very hard to pick out.
Years in the wood
The grub bores into dead and dying wood, and takes several years to grow up.
Built like a bullet
Its smooth, tapering shape lets it take off in an instant.
The real thing
Photos of the jewel beetle
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
On a hot, sunny day, watch the tops of trees at a woodland edge for green sparks circling in the sun.
How to help
It needs old and dying trees for its grubs. Leaving dead wood standing helps.
Keep going
More from The Borneo rainforest
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