Family: Scarabaeidae
Subfamily: Melolonthinae
Length: 12-24 mm
The common name is May Beetle, though certainly their flight period in West Virginia spills over into June. It is true that the May Beetles begin to fly about a month before the June Beetles.
Folks often notice May Beetles crashing into window screens, attracted to the lights. The adults are indeed nocturnal, and feed on foliage.
The white grubs feed underground in lawns and corn fields.
Dillon and Dillon (1972) observe that beetles in this genus "are usually very difficult to identify, as the species resemble each other very closely."
McCutcheon, Weaver, and Thomas (1994) examined 15,588 specimens of Phyllophaga species collected in West Virginia. By far the most abundant was Phyllophaga futilis, which accounted for approximately half of the specimens. Two other species were represented by more than 1,000 specimens: P. hirticula and P. fervida.
