One of most beauitiful European beetles, a living emerald and a nice pet
Unfortunately many gardeners see them only as flower-eating pests and destroy at sight - even don't preserve after killing.
Many mankind - gardeners or not - see any animal as a pest. I would say most of them. And most of the animal species called "pests" never are pests. This kind of thinking is only appropiate for a monster, but, that's the thing, most of our species are monsters.
Actually the only true pest are we, and also most of the species that would not be pests if was not by our fault (rats, cockroaches, pigs, goats, rabbits, cats, monkeys, deers, etc etc etc).
Anyway I'm very agree - this living jewel is a better ornament for a garden than any of the flowers in it. A rare species in Spain, where is found only in the northern border - while in the rest of the country is substituted by the almost identical Cetonia carthami.
I introduced them to my zoo collection about 5 years ago, as a live food species for primates. They breed very well, and relieve the fate of more valuable sun beetles (Pachnoda).
But it came out that there were about 3 species in the culture, and they hybridised!
Cetonia aurata and 2 Protaetia species (metallica & some other).
Better not to release them
You can release the native species with no problem, but the hybrids (that have not much ecological value) maybe have a high prize for collectors... you can try maybe.
