Oriental Beetle (Exomala orientalis), taken July 23, 2025, in New Hampshire, US
A beautiful, iridescent black oriental beetle perched on cracking white (lead) paint! Insects must love lead poisoning, because they absolutely flock to the lead paint siding of this cabin... Fortunately for me, the white background makes cool pictures with greyscale subjects like hickory tussock moth caterpillars and the occasional black oriental beetle. This species is typically a golden brown with darker brown patterning, but they occasionally come in a solid black form which is my favorite of their variants! I'm unsure if there's any rhyme or reason to the appearance of the black morph, but the native species of this type of beetle we have in Georgia displays far more variation than E. orientalis does. It's possible this is a disruptive selection type of situation, where spotted and black individuals do well, but individuals in between the two morphs don't. Whatever the reason, even though they aren't native, I'm always happy to find this uncommon morph in the wild!
