Common Dotted Fruit Chafer

Afrikaans name:

Photo © Steven Herbert

Cyrtothyrea marginalis

The Common Dotted Fruit Chafer is a big name for a small spotted bug! These insects are almost 1 cm in length and are black with white spots. They belong to the Scarab family which consists of 30,000 species world-wide.

The Common Dotted Fruit Chafer feeds on nectar and may be found on fruit as well as various flowers such as Arum Lilies. It may actually cause damage to some ornamental garden flowers. They are important pollinators of proteas, orchids and lilies.

In South Africa the Common Dotted Fruit Chafer can be found from the Western Cape through the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

There are not many species in the genus Cyrtothyrea. They are all black with white dots or lines and each species has a distinctive pattern. Cyrtothyrea marginalis is the only member of this genus to have red on the sides of the Pronotum. These Chafers only occur is Africa, south of the Sahara.

References and further reading

Pollinators, Predators and Parasites - Author: C. Scholtz, J. Scholtz, H. De Klerk - Published: 2021 - Page: 292

Pollinators, Predators and Parasites - Author: C. Scholtz, J. Scholtz, H. De Klerk - Published: 2021 - Page: 185

Field Guide to Insects of South Africa - Author: Mike Picker, Charles Griffiths and Alan Weaving - Published: 0 - Page: 200

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