The Garden Fruit Chafer (Pachnoda sinuata) is a small beetle. It is an insect. It is also known as the Brown-and-Yellow Fruit Chafer. It is related to the scarab beetle and the dung beetle.

The Garden Fruit Chafer is yellow with dark-brown central markings with yellow spots. It has a horizontal yellow bar near the base of its shell. Its shell is called a carapace, which is smooth. Its body has three parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. Its head is small with two short antennae.

 

It measures about 2.4 centimetres (1 inch) long.

The Garden Fruit Chafer is found in southern Africa, in the countries of Namibia and South Africa. They live in many habitats, including parks and gardens.

The larvae feeds on rotten wood and leaf litter. The adult beetle feeds on flowers and fruit. Birds like to eat the Garden Fruit Chafer.

Females lay their eggs in manure, compost heaps, soil, or in plant roots. The eggs hatch into white grubs, called larvae. The grubs grow until they reach about 5 centimetres (2 inches), and then they make a cocoon around themselves out of mud. They stay in their protective mud, or clay, cocoons to pupate (change into an adult). The adult beetle emerges from the cocoon.

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM