These attractive insects are SUN BEETLES from Africa.  These beetles feed on ripe fruit such as bananas and can fly surprisingly well!

These beetles, like all other types of beetle, go through a complete metamorphosis during their life cycle.  This means that, like butterflies, they go through a larval stage which looks completely different from the adult beetle.  In butterflies the larval stage is called a caterpillar, in beetles the larvae are called grubs. 

A small grub hatches from a beetle egg and feeds greedily on rotting leaves and rotten wood.  It continues to feed and grow until it reaches a huge size and then it pupates, which means it makes a pupa or cocoon around itself, in which it turns into a beetle.  The pictures below show small and large sun beetle grubs, and a beetle beginning to emerge from it pupal cell.