Green Fruit Beetles (Cotinis mutabilis)
Common Name: Green Fruit Beetles/ figeater beetle
Latin Name:Cotinis mutabilis
Appearance:
The figeater beetle is also the green fruit (Cotinis mutabilis).
The green fruit beetle (Cotinis mutabilis) is 1.25 inches long, a metallic bug with a scarab-like form.
The larval stage is a C-shaped, creamy white grub that eats compost that hasn’t fully decomposed or piles of grass clippings that have decayed in the soil.
Territory:
The Green Fruit Beetles is native to the moister portions of the American southwest, where its natural diet consists of cactus fruit and desert tree sap.
Host plant:
The larvae feed on decaying organic waste such as those found in compost piles, manure piles, and organic mulch, as well as plant roots such as grassroots in lawns.
Damages caused by Green Fruit Beetles:
Adult green fruit bugs devour developing soft fruit and destroy fruit by aggregating on it during mating. Adults can be seen on mature apricots, caneberries, figs, grapes, peaches, and plums. Grubs (larvae) do not harm fruit or plants; instead, they dig and eat in piles of decomposing organic matter.
Life history and habits:
The green fruit beetle has four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Females deposit elliptical to oval, white eggs approximately 1/10 inch long just beneath the surface of organic waste such as compost piles, grass clippings, organic mulch, and manure after adults mate. In roughly a week, eggs hatch into larvae. The larvae grow through three increasingly bigger instars as they feed on decaying organic substances. Larvae develop and pupate in a cell of soil particles throughout the spring. Adults are usually present from late spring through early October. Green fruit beetles overwinter as larvae and have one generation yearly, most of which is spent in the larval stage.
