Jewel Beetle

The Jewel Beetle (タマムシ, Tamamushi) is a small insect found on trees. It is greenish in color.

Donating to the Museum
As with all insects in the, the Jewel Beetle can be donated to the Museum by talking to Blathers, who will give a small speech on it.

In Animal Crossing
Blathers speech is as follows:

"The incredible jewel-like iridescence, it's so... So very... It's just so very... nauseating. Yes, that's it."

In Wild World
"I am a nocturnal creature, so this color is rather a bit too bright for me...There's also the fact that I abhor bugs to consider. Blech! Loathsome thing..."

In City Folk
Blathers speech is as follows:

"The Japanese name for the jewel beetle inspired their word for iridescence. Makes sense, I suppose... Since the beetles keep their color after death, it's said their bodies were worn as jewelry long ago. Do you suppose they left the legs and antennae on the bodies when they wore them? ...Blech."

The Jewel Beetle can be found in the top-most section of the Museum, to the far left, on the same tree as the Rainbow Stag (the tree closest to the light on that side).

In New Leaf
Upon donation to the museum, the Jewel Beetle can be found in the upper right room of the Insect section. The exhibit has this to say about the Jewel Beetle:
 * "Jewel beetles are very pretty insects that show a red line on their green bodies when refracting light. They're so pretty that it's believed people used them for craftwork a long time ago. Their shiny wings are easy to notice, but birds have a hard time targeting them. This is because birds aren't very good at seeing things that change color in different lights."

Further Information
The beetle (Chrysochroa fulgidissima) is a buprestid native to Japan and is known as Tamamushi in Japanese. Due to its iridescence, the true color of the bug can be difficult to determine, which is the basis of the expression tamamushi-iro in Japanese. It is used to refer to vague or unclear statements given by a politician. Metallic colors in beetles may not be due to pigments but rather how the structure of surface of the exoskeleton refracts light. These features have on rare occasions been preserved in fossils, some as old as 50 million years, as explained here.