The noble chafer (Gnorimus nobilis) is a species of beetles belonging to the family Scarabaeidae, subfamily Cetoniinae.
Etymology
The genus name Gnorimus derives from the ancient Greek γνώριμος, gnōrimos meaning 'famous'. The species name nobilis (Latin) means noble.
Distribution
This species is widespread in most of Europe (Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom). It seems to be declining over much of its European range. In Britain this beetle has been losing its habitat, and its populations shrinking, for more than a century. The beetle has been recently seen at a handful of sites in the old English fruit-growing regions of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
The related species Gnorimus variabilis is easily distinguishable. In this species the elytra are not green metallic, but black, with white spots. In addition, the shape of the pronotum side edge is laterally weakly s-shaped, while in Gnorimus nobilis it is simply rounded.
Gnorimus nobilis is also rather similar to the more common Cetonia aurata, but in the latter the middle and hind legs are toothed, whereas they are smooth in the Gnorinus nobilis. Moreover in the noble chafer the scutellum forms an equilateral triangle.