These June bugs are what we used to catch when I was young. We'd tie a string around their leg and then let them fly around while holding onto the string. I'm not recommending this but yes it's what we did!
I came upon a large swarm of what I thought were bees or hornets and they kept clumsily flying into me and bouncing off. Each time I held my breath in anticipation of great pain from the sting until I saw one close enough to tell it was just a beetle.
The females lay their eggs in the soil and the larvae hatch from eggs and feed on decaying plants or manure (dung beetle) before they spend the winter deep in the soil. They pop up in the spring and the adults emerge in June or July - usually after a rain. They will eat your plants but are mostly harmless compared to the japanese beetle.
