Categories

Unidentified fly (?) in AZ
Fri, May 22, 2009 at 5:11 PM
Found this evening while pruning hybrid Chilean mesquite; overall length is ~16mm. Compared with images from your website, but could not find any matches. Any idea what it might be?
AJ
Phoenix, AZ

Metallic Wood Boring Beetle

Hi AJ,
This isn’t a fly, which might explain your difficulty with the identification. It is a Metallic Wood Boring Beetle in the family Buprestidae. We believe it is in the genus Chrysobothris. BugGuide pictures a group from this genus known as the femorata species group, and there is a photo from Arizona that looks quite close to your specimen. We are not sure if Eric Eaton will be able to respond to us at the moment, but we will contact him for his opinion. The second insect in your first photo is an immature Assassin Bug, probably in the genus Zelus.

Metallic Wood Boring Beetle

Daniel:
I don’t even know if that buprestid is a Chrysobothris.  I’ll try and get folks on Entomo-l listserv to respond to you, but it is the holiday weekend, of course….
Eric

Related Posts

1. Metallic Wood Boring Beetle (July 9, 2008)
2. Metallic Wood Boring Beetle (December 2, 2005)
3. Metallic Wood Boring Beetle from Panama (November 8, 2005)
4. Metallic Wood Boring Beetle: Buprestis rufipes (July 1, 2007)
5. Metallic Wood Boring Beetle from Turkey (April 23, 2009)