Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) are very destructive, but also very beautiful and I sought to highlight both of these aspects in this image.
There were quite a few plant with holes chewed in them in one area of the marsh and I suspect that Japanese beetles were the culprits (this one sure looks guilty). I like the coloration and the reflectiveness of the insect’s body. I’m not completely sure, but I think that I see my own reflection as well as the sky in the part of the shell near the beetle’s head.
This was a situation in which I really enjoyed having my new 180mm macro lens. It allowed me to frame it the way in which I wanted without scaring away the beetle (and I did not have to do much cropping at all).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Great picture!
I really despise these bugs, but this is a might fine portrait nevertheless.
I think the guilt could be purely circumstantial – wrong place, wrong time!
and if her were on trial, I can imagine the oath he would have to swear., “Do you swear to tell the truth, the hole truth….”
… and it wouldn’t.
Hate these critters. I gave up my backyard grape vines because i couldn’t stand all the time it took to remove them from the vines. (no poisons)
I don’t grow anything, so I can admire their beauty, but I understand from folks like you how much of a pest these insects are.
I’ve spent a large part of my life as a gardener fighting these little eating machines but in the end they won, just as I always knew they would. I agree though-they are beautiful with their metallic sheen.