Meet the Maquech: this jewel-covered beetle is alive!
Yes, it’s alive! In a tradition from Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, a living Maquech beetle is decorated and worn as jewellery.
Rebeca María Nieto Cervantes / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0. Responsive display may crop the image.
Imagine a brooch that starts walking. A maquech, also spelled makech, is a real beetle that has been used as living jewellery. Its decorations are attached to its body, rather than embedded inside it.
A beetle beneath the sparkle
The Natural History Museum in London identifies the maquech as Zopherus chilensis, a flightless beetle. Its undecorated body has brown, grey and black markings that help it blend into bark covered with lichens.
The museum connects the jewellery tradition to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Its collection includes a nineteenth-century example decorated and attached to a chain.
Why the tiny chain?
Because the “jewel” has legs. The University of Colorado Museum describes a specimen adorned with ribbon and an opalescent material, with a chain that could be pinned to clothing. The chain connects the living insect to its wearer.
How would you design beetle-inspired jewellery that leaves the living beetle in its habitat?
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Sources checked October 16, 2026. Publication dates refer to our articles, not when the facts were discovered.