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
The following is a list of species within the genus Melolontha: Melolontha aceris Faldermann, 1836 Melolontha aeneicollis Bates, 1891 Melolontha afflicta Ballion, 1871 Melolontha albida Frivaldszky, 1835 Melolontha albopruinosa Fairmaire, 1878 Melolontha anita Reitter, 1902 Melolontha arunachalensis Gupta, Keith, Bhunia, Das, Ghosh & Chandra, 2023 Melolontha baetica Hillert, Rössner, Navarro & Urbano, 2019 Melolontha borumandi Montreuil, 2012 Melolontha carinata (Brenske, 1896) Melolontha chinensis Guérin-Méneville, 1838 Melolontha ciliciensis Petrovitz, 1962 Melolontha costipennis Fairmaire, 1889 Melolontha cuprescens Blanchard, 1871 Melolontha daliensis Wang & Qiu, 2025 Melolontha davidis Fairmaire, 1878 Melolontha excisicauda Balthasar, 1936 Melolontha flabellata Sharp, 1876 Melolontha frater Arrow, 1913 – Indonesia Melolontha furcicauda Ancey, 1881 Melolontha gonzalezi López-Colón & Bahillo De la Puebla, 2020 Melolontha gussakovskii Medvedev, 1945 Melolontha guttigera Sharp, 1876 Melolontha hidalgoi Hillert, Rössner, Navarro & Urbano, 2019 Melolontha hippocastani Fabricius, 1801 – European forest cockchafer Melolontha hybrida Charpentier, 1825 Melolontha incana (Motschulsky, 1853) Melolontha indica Hope, 1831 Melolontha insulana (Moser, 1918) Melolontha japonica Burmeister, 1855 Melolontha javanica Keith & Li, 2005 Melolontha jianbini Wang, 2024 Melolontha lachungensis Gupta, Keith, Bhunia, Das, Ghosh & Chandra, 2023 Melolontha linaresi Hillert, Rössner, Navarro & Urbano, 2019 Melolontha macrophylla Fischer von Waldheim, 1830 Melolontha maculata (Zhang, 1983) Melolontha malaccensis (Moser, 1913) Melolontha mandarina Fairmaire, 1878 Melolontha masafumii Nomura, 1952 Melolontha medvedevi Kryzhanovskij, 1978 Melolontha melolontha (Linnaeus, 1758) – common European cockchafer Melolontha minima Kobayashi, 1985 Melolontha nepalensis (Blanchard, 1851) Melolontha opaca Billberg, 1820 Melolontha papposa Illiger, 1803 Melolontha pectoralis Megerle von Mühlfeld, 1812 – European large cockchafer Melolontha permira Reitter, 1887 Melolontha phupanensis Keith, 2008 Melolontha pinguis Walker, 1859 Melolontha pseudofurcicauda Keith, 2008 Melolontha reichenbachi Keith, 2008 Melolontha rufocrassa Fairmaire, 1889 Melolontha sabatinellii Rössner & Hillert, 2020 Melolontha sardiniensis Drumont, Muret, Hager & Penner, 1999 Melolontha satsumaensis Niijima & Kinoshita, 1923 Melolontha sculpticollis Fairmaire, 1891 Melolontha setifera Li, 2010 Melolontha shanghaiana (Brenske, 1896) Melolontha siamensis Nonfried, 1891 Melolontha taihokuensis Niijima & Kinoshita, 1923 Melolontha tamina Nomura, 1964 Melolontha tarimensis Semenov, 1896 Melolontha taygetana Rey, 1999 Melolontha tenuicauda Fairmaire, 1896 Melolontha tianlongi Wang, 2024 Melolontha virescens (Brenske, 1896) Melolontha wangyutangi Wang & Qiu, 2025 Melolontha weyersi (Brenske, 1900) Melolontha wushana Nomura, 1977 Melolontha xui Wang, 2024
Fossil species †Melolontha greithiana Heer, 1847 †Melolontha solitaria Novak, 1878
Selected former species Melolontha argus Burmeister 1855 Melolontha bifurcata (Brenske, 1896) Melolontha fuscotestacea Kraatz, 1887 Melolontha kraatzi Reitter 1906 Melolontha rubiginosa
References