Green Flower Chafer, Dōzen Subspecies

This species is a type of scarab beetle that gathers around flowers. It is around 16–19 mm long, with a green back and light yellow spots. Dōzen specimens have a bluish-brown back and are considered a subspecies of the green flower chafer. The regular green flower chafer can be found on Dōgo; this means that even between Dōzen and Dōgo, this interesting insect has different subspecies with different characteristics.
The Dōzen subspecies is distributed only on the three Dōzen Islands (Nanakoshima, Nishinoshima, and Chiburijima). It was described as a new subspecies when in 1994 a bluish-black male was found on Nishinoshima, and in the following year all collected specimens were bluish-black. The beetles visit flowers for pollen, and the sight of their bodies covered in pollen as they feed can be quite endearing.