Crazy looking beetle

[Ewok]

I took this pic a while ago in Fl, but I have always wondered what species it was. Its an awesome bug, with its metallic green, its cool how it hovers in one spot too. Also I noticed that it constantly drips fluid too. I can't believe how fast its wings move!


The duplicate thread in "not so spinless wonders" can be deleted

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Looks like a fly to me.

 

[Gigas]

I agree its a fly in everyway, not beetle characteristics on it.

 

[Ewok]

do flys hover in one spot though?

 

[Tleilaxu]

Yes flies often hover in one spot... Hover flies are most noted for this though. Your beetle looks like a green bottle fly.

 

[Vanilla]

Looks like a fly to me as well!

 

[roach dude]

Looks like a green bottle (Phaenicia sericata). Nice photo though!

 

[loxoscelesfear]

it is...

...definitly a fly

 

[Scythemantis]

Yeah, just a "garden variety" green-bottle fly. They're the most common flies where I live, breeding in garbage and roadkill like...well, like flies.

They are certainly very pretty, but I'm not sure how you would mistake one for a beetle if you ever saw one land.

 

[Borya]

Don't you think it is Cetonia sp. (C.aurata) ?

 

[Gigas]

Well no, first of all the specimen is from Florida not europe and I don't know of any beetle that can hover in place.
Secondly the large gren areas on the head are definately large compound eyes, flower beetle have small round black eyes. the anttenae on the head are most distinctly not beetle antenae but resemble fly antennae greatly.
Lastly there are no Elytra, which are always visible in flying beetle images.

 

[racketman]

Blow fly of some sort - not a Greenbottle though.

 

[bugmankeith]

Bluebottles are my fav, along with the camouflage colored fruit flies.

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

I agree with Borya, the picture shows a flying Cetoniid beetle, maybe Cetonia or Protaetia sp., not a fly!
The large green area that is mistaken for eyes is the pronotum.
The Elytra are fused in Cetoniid beetles, they cover the abdomen even during flight.
Before these beetles are ready to take off, the hindwings are stretched out to the sides from under their cover.

By the way, most people, even if not especially interrested in insects can discern a fly from a beetle, []Kaliningrad[] sure can.

 

[nepenthes]

Don't flies usually have very skinny legs? Its back legs look fairly robust.

 

[racketman]

I agree with Borya, the picture shows a flying Cetoniid beetle, maybe Cetonia or Protaetia sp., not a fly!
The large green area that is mistaken for eyes is the pronotum.
The Elytra are fused in Cetoniid beetles, they cover the abdomen even during flight.
Before these beetles are ready to take off, the hindwings are stretched out to the sides from under their cover.

By the way, most people, even if not especially interrested in insects can discern a fly from a beetle, []Kaliningrad[] sure can.

Well yes when they are on the ground but with this flight shot the 'eyes' certainly had me fooled. So maybe its a Rose chafer or similar?