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Assassin Bugs, Metallic Borer BeetlesUnidentified 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
Update
December 11, 2009
It is not in the Chrysobothris femorata group, as was suggested. Rather, it is Chrysobothris merkelii Horn.
Rick
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