Melolontha is a genus of beetles in the family Scarabaeidae. The European cockchafers belong to this genus.

Taxonomy

Linnaeus called the European cockchafer Scarabaeus melolontha. Étienne Louis Geoffroy used Melolontha as a genus name (1762), but his book has been suppressed by the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature, and the authority for the name is the later (1775) publication by Johan Christian Fabricius.

Species

thumb|upright|[[Melolontha hippocastani|M. hippocastani]]

The following is a list of species within the genus Melolontha:

  • Melolontha aceris <small>Faldermann, 1836</small>
  • Melolontha aeneicollis <small>Bates, 1891</small>
  • Melolontha afflicta <small>Ballion, 1871</small>
  • Melolontha albida <small>Frivaldszky, 1835</small>
  • Melolontha albopruinosa <small>Fairmaire, 1878</small>
  • Melolontha anita <small>Reitter, 1902</small>
  • Melolontha arunachalensis <small>Gupta, Keith, Bhunia, Das, Ghosh & Chandra, 2023</small>
  • Melolontha baetica <small>Hillert, Rössner, Navarro & Urbano, 2019</small>
  • Melolontha borumandi <small>Montreuil, 2012</small>
  • Melolontha carinata <small>(Brenske, 1896)</small>
  • Melolontha chinensis <small>Guérin-Méneville, 1838</small>
  • Melolontha ciliciensis <small>Petrovitz, 1962</small>
  • Melolontha costipennis <small>Fairmaire, 1889</small>
  • Melolontha cuprescens <small>Blanchard, 1871</small>
  • Melolontha daliensis <small>Wang & Qiu, 2025</small>
  • Melolontha davidis <small>Fairmaire, 1878</small>
  • Melolontha excisicauda <small>Balthasar, 1936</small>
  • Melolontha flabellata <small>Sharp, 1876</small>
  • Melolontha frater <small>Arrow, 1913</small> – Indonesia
  • Melolontha furcicauda <small>Ancey, 1881</small>
  • Melolontha gonzalezi <small>López-Colón & Bahillo De la Puebla, 2020</small>
  • Melolontha gussakovskii <small>Medvedev, 1945</small>
  • Melolontha guttigera <small>Sharp, 1876</small>
  • Melolontha hidalgoi <small>Hillert, Rössner, Navarro & Urbano, 2019</small>
  • Melolontha hippocastani <small>Fabricius, 1801</small> – European forest cockchafer
  • Melolontha hybrida <small>Charpentier, 1825</small>
  • Melolontha incana <small>(Motschulsky, 1853)</small>
  • Melolontha indica <small>Hope, 1831</small>
  • Melolontha insulana <small>(Moser, 1918)</small>
  • Melolontha japonica <small>Burmeister, 1855</small>
  • Melolontha javanica <small>Keith & Li, 2005</small>
  • Melolontha jianbini <small>Wang, 2024</small>
  • Melolontha lachungensis <small>Gupta, Keith, Bhunia, Das, Ghosh & Chandra, 2023</small>
  • Melolontha linaresi <small>Hillert, Rössner, Navarro & Urbano, 2019</small>
  • Melolontha macrophylla <small>Fischer von Waldheim, 1830</small>
  • Melolontha maculata <small>(Zhang, 1983)</small>
  • Melolontha malaccensis <small>(Moser, 1913)</small>
  • Melolontha mandarina <small>Fairmaire, 1878</small>
  • Melolontha masafumii <small>Nomura, 1952</small>
  • Melolontha medvedevi <small>Kryzhanovskij, 1978</small>
  • Melolontha melolontha <small>(Linnaeus, 1758)</small> – common European cockchafer
  • Melolontha minima <small>Kobayashi, 1985</small>
  • Melolontha nepalensis <small>(Blanchard, 1851)</small>
  • Melolontha opaca <small>Billberg, 1820</small>
  • Melolontha papposa <small>Illiger, 1803</small>
  • Melolontha pectoralis <small>Megerle von Mühlfeld, 1812</small> – European large cockchafer
  • Melolontha permira <small>Reitter, 1887</small>
  • Melolontha phupanensis <small>Keith, 2008</small>
  • Melolontha pinguis <small>Walker, 1859</small>
  • Melolontha pseudofurcicauda <small>Keith, 2008</small>
  • Melolontha reichenbachi <small>Keith, 2008</small>
  • Melolontha rufocrassa <small>Fairmaire, 1889</small>
  • Melolontha sabatinellii <small>Rössner & Hillert, 2020</small>
  • Melolontha sardiniensis <small>Drumont, Muret, Hager & Penner, 1999</small>
  • Melolontha satsumaensis <small>Niijima & Kinoshita, 1923</small>
  • Melolontha sculpticollis <small>Fairmaire, 1891</small>
  • Melolontha setifera <small>Li, 2010</small>
  • Melolontha shanghaiana <small>(Brenske, 1896)</small>
  • Melolontha siamensis <small>Nonfried, 1891</small>
  • Melolontha taihokuensis <small>Niijima & Kinoshita, 1923</small>
  • Melolontha tamina <small>Nomura, 1964</small>
  • Melolontha tarimensis <small>Semenov, 1896</small>
  • Melolontha taygetana <small>Rey, 1999</small>
  • Melolontha tenuicauda <small>Fairmaire, 1896</small>
  • Melolontha tianlongi <small>Wang, 2024</small>
  • Melolontha virescens <small>(Brenske, 1896)</small>
  • Melolontha wangyutangi <small>Wang & Qiu, 2025</small>
  • Melolontha weyersi <small>(Brenske, 1900)</small>
  • Melolontha wushana <small>Nomura, 1977</small>
  • Melolontha xui <small>Wang, 2024</small>

Fossil species

  • †Melolontha greithiana <small>Heer, 1847</small>
  • †Melolontha solitaria <small>Novak, 1878</small>

Selected former species

  • Melolontha argus <small>Burmeister 1855</small>
  • Melolontha bifurcata <small>(Brenske, 1896)</small>
  • Melolontha fuscotestacea <small>Kraatz, 1887</small>
  • Melolontha kraatzi <small>Reitter 1906</small>
  • Melolontha rubiginosa

References