Jewel beetle

The Jewel Beetle is a bug in the that first appears in. It is a small, green-and-red beetle found on the front of trees in games prior to and on tree stumps in. It appears all day in, but can only be found in the morning and early afternoon in the previous games.

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
When donating a Jewel Beetle to Blathers in, he will tell the player the following:

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

In
When donating a Jewel Beetle to Blathers in, he will tell the player the following:

"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
When donating a Jewel Beetle to Blathers in, he will tell the player the following:

"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
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."

In
When donating a Jewel Beetle to Blathers or selecting "Tell me about this!" in, he will tell the player the following:

"The green shimmer of the jewel beetle's wings is nothing short of nauseating...yes? No? Well, so says you. Though...jewel beetles were once prized by collectors who turned their iridescent wings into pretty jewelry. Why anyone would want to wear bug parts on their body is beyond me. Fashion foul indeed. "

Once donated to the museum, the Jewel Beetle can be found in a tree stump next to the Citrus Long-Horned Beetle and the Rosalia Batesi Beetle.

Real-world 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.