The Barbary bugs are flower beetles often seen feeding on the flowers of the crown daisy and other large flowers. They can be found in the Maltese countryside from late winter to early summer and spend most of the day feeding on pollen and nectar.

They belong to a group of beetles known as the flower chafers, which consists of 4,000 species, many of which still have to be discovered.

There are two species of Barbary bugs which are quite similar: white-spotted and yellow-haired. They are both flat, rectangular-shaped, bronzed-black insects with a small number of whitish spots. Their most distinctive feature is the covering of short ‘hair’ all over their body which slowly wears off until eventually only a few hairs are left.

In the white-spotted Barbary bug, the hairs are lighter in colour than those on the yellow-haired Barbary bug.

Both species are indigenous to the Maltese islands. The white-spotted is found throughout most of Europe except in Scandinavia and the British isles.

The yellow-haired is restricted to the more southern parts of Europe as it found in France, Italy, Greece, Macedonia, Portugal, the former Yugoslav states, Spain, in the Near East, North Africa and on most Mediterranean islands.

The two species are important pollinators as their body often becomes covered with pollen from the flowers on which they are feeding. When they fly off to another flower of the same species, they are bound to leave some of the pollen on their body on the new flower, thereby pollinating it.

After mating, the females lay the eggs on the ground. The larvae live in the soil and feed on vegetable material such as roots and rotting leaves. They are not known to do any damage.

However, in some areas where these species are very common, these bugs are sometimes considered a pest because they damage the flowers of fruit trees. They can be controlled by means of traps hung on to the trees.

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