This is perhaps the coolest beetle I’ve ever photographed, and it was discovered floating on the precipice of death in my parents’ pool in Mount Dora, Florida. Heh. In April of 2013 my wife, daughter, and I were in Mount Dora hanging out with my parents. As is often the case when such trips occur, much of our time was spent in my parents’ pool. More specifically, I should say that much of our time was spent was with everybody in the pool while I trolled about the yard for wildlife. While I was ducking about some bushes for anoles or some such, my wife called me over to the pool. She’d seen this little scamper floating just above oblivion. I scooped it up and snagged these photographs (because my camera is never far from hand in my parents’ yard). I then proceeded with the business of figuring out just what the hell it was; I’d never seen such a beetle before in my life.

As it turned out, thanks to bugguide.net and some trolling about the wiki-wiki-wild-wild-web, I learned that this was a Harlequin flower beetle, Gymnetis caseyi. Further, this location a few clicks off of its typical range. In the United States, this predominantly Mexican species, a true beetle of Order Coleoptera, ranges north and east along the Gulf coastal regions of Texas and Louisiana. It is also documented along a few stretches of Florida’s western coastline. Lake county, where this individual was photographed, is smack dab in the middle-interior of peninsula Florida — not too close to the shoreline. Of note, this is the one and only Harlequin flower beetle I’ve ever come across in Lake county, Florida.

After I snagged these photographs, I gently placed the beetle on a tall shrub near the edge of the yard. It was very much still alive and crawling about, though it wasn’t quick to flight or very fast. I suppose this beetle’s romp in the pool wore it down a bit, and it needed a little vacay from its vacay. Most understandable, little beetle!

Harlequin Flower Beetle (Gymnetis caseyi)

...a species of flower chafer (Cetoniinae) that occurs in the southern United States (ranging from Texas to Florida) and Mexico, into South America. Like other cetoniine beetles adult G. caseyi likely feed on fruit, pollen and flowers. 

Classification

Animalia-Arthropoda-Insecta-Coleoptera-Polyphaga-Scarabaeoidea-Scarabaeidae-Cetoniinae-Gymnetini-Gymnetis-G. caseyi