Brassicogethes aeneus

Introduction:

Pollen beetles are a broadly rounded oval shape, with short antenna that are clubbed at the end. Adults are about 2–3 mm long, 1–2 mm wide and black with a hint of metallic green. The larvae are up to 3 mm long and white with brown sclerotised plates.
Life Cycle: They are attracted to yellow flowers and indeed most things yellow, including clothing and tennis balls. They occur in large numbers, feeding mainly on pollen but sometimes gnawing on the flower parts. They are an important pollinator though can be a pest of Oil Seed Rape. The larvae feed on the sexual parts of flowers of plants in the Cabbage family, causing the flower to abort. After hatching inside oilseed rape flower buds, the larvae develop and then drop to the soil to pupate and transform into adult beetles, which emerge in early summer before overwintering and migrating back.

Size (2–3 mm long)
Sexual Dimorphism: males slightly smaller
Metamorphosis: complete (egg, larva, pupa, adult)