text graphic: Leaf Chafers
Graphic of Plusiotis gloriosa: 
a beautiful green and gold scarab beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae)

...of the National Museum of Natural History

A collaboration of the Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service & the Smithsonian Institution's, Department of Systematic Biology, Entomology
SEL Home Golden coin logos for the Smithsonian, 
for the National Museum of Natural History, 
for the USDA and the Systematic Entomology Lab: click here to learn more


Scarabs in the subfamily Rutelinae are commonly known as "leaf chafers." The group has approximately 4,100 known species and occurs throughout the world. Choose from the golden icons below to learn more about the habits and appearance of leaf chafers, to get a general overview of the leaf chafer collection at the National Museum of Natural History, or to learn about and search the database (inventory) of species in that collection. Select the Smithsonian gopher if you wish to proceed directly to the text-only files in the leaf chafer gopher menu.
Chafer icon:
Learn more about leaf chafers Mounted specimen icon:
Learn more about the collection Floppy disk icon:
Learn more about the database Gopher icon:
Access the gopher database
About Leaf Chafers About the Collection About the Database Go for the gopher




  • Contract Scarab Specialist: Mary Liz Jameson , University of Nebraska State Museum
  • Project Coordinator & Web Designer: Natalia J. Vandenberg , Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA/ARS)
  • This project was funded in part through a Smithsonian Institution Collection Improvement Grant (8633FO00; 1996), awarded to Natalia J. Vandenberg (SEL), Gloria N. House (SI, DSB) and Terry L. Erwin (SI, DSB). We thank Linda L. Sims (SI, DSB) and Jerry A. Louton (SI, NMNH, ADP) for placing our database on the Smithsonian Gopher.