sickly bug appears out of nowhere
Location: inland San Diego county, California
July 7, 2011 12:58 am
Two nights in a row i run across the same type of bug, which i have never seen before. Both bugs seem sick and dying and appear out of nowhere. About an inch long and seemingly wingless with long sturdy segmented antennae. Makes a quiet buzzing sound when provoked. No hairs on the legs that i can see. Underside of abdomen is banded. We’ve had hot humid weather both days they appeared. But I’ve never come across one before.
Signature: sara
Longhorned Borer Beetle
Hi sara,
This is a Longhorned Borer Beetle in the family Cerambycidae, though we cannot provide you with a species name at this time.
¶ Posted 07 July 2011 § ‡ ° Prionus beetle in Connecticut
Location: Mill Pond Park, 864 Willard Avenue, Newington, CT 06111
July 5, 2011 5:22 pm
About 1 week ago, I captured a black beetle, about 2 inches long, in Mill Pond Park, Newington, Connecticut. (Mill Pond Park, 864 Willard Avenue, Newington, CT 06111).
The beetle was actually flying near the pond, trying to escape a house sparrow that was attacking it. The sparrow flew away and I went to see what the bug was. I captured the beetle as it tried to dig into the grass. The beetle had minimal damage, apparently from the sparrow. After I photographed and released it, it flew off into the bushes bordering the pond.
An entomologist I know who works at UConn said she guessed it was a Prionus sp. I’m just curious what species.
Signature: Chris Dubey
Broad Necked Root Borer
Hi Chris,
This year, most of the images we received of Broad Necked Root Borer, Prionus laticollis, have been females. Thank you for supplying us with a new photo of a male who can be distinguished by his antennae. Your first hand observations of the sparrow attack is a great addition to our archive of information.
¶ Posted 06 July 2011 § ‡ ° 1st Ever Longicorn Beetle (Sawyer?) Sighting
Location: SE Michigan
July 5, 2011 5:48 am
Dear Bugman; Yesterday, I almost squashed this beetle by accident, when I went to turn on the outdoor faucet. I was so surprised to see that it was a Longicorn beetle–I had never seen one before! (And the only reason I knew what it was in the first place, was from photos posted on your site.)
I ran into the house and grabbed my camera before it disappeared.
It was quite calm, rather slow moving and allowed me to take many photos, as it rested on an aborvitae branch.
I am not sure, but I think it is a White Spotted Sawyer. Can’t get over the eyes, which wrap around the base of it’s antennae. He/she looks like a little alien from the profile.
Signature: Christine
Longicorn
Hi Christine,
Though we don’t know the identity of your Longicorn, we can say that it is NOT a White Spotted Sawyer. We will enlist some expert advice and update this posting when we get an identity.
Longicorn
Eric Eaton provides an identification
Nice! This would appear to be a specimen of Goes pulverulentus which is not that commonly seen. It would be a Bugguide record if the person would agree to post it there. Great find!
Eric
Dear Daniel and Eric: Wow! Thanks so much for determining that this Longicorn is not what I thought it might be. It was so exciting to read that this beetle is not all that common. (COOL!) Glad I was able to snap some clear photos of it. Please feel free to use/post my pics. of this little guy as needed. If Bugguide would like to post it, they are also welcome to use the photos. I have several more good shots of this beetle from other angles—dorsal view, side close-up, if anyone would like them for better identification, or explanation purposes. ( I’m now going to look up Goes pulverulentus, to learn more about this intriguing beetle.)
¶ Posted 05 July 2011 § ‡ ° Big Black Beetle
Location: Brentwood, NY 11717 (40.782418,-73.251817)
July 3, 2011 1:32 am
What the hell is this thing??? found it in my apartment. lost in my dirty clothing pile…
Signature: Henry Z. Wilkie
Female Broad-Necked Root Borer
Hi Henry,
This is a female Broad Necked Root Borer, our feature Bug of the Month for July 2011. According to BugGuide: “Female much larger than male. The former is reported to be flightless, or nearly so. Males are attracted to lights.” We wonder how this flightless or nearly flightless female found her way into your dirty laundry, though this specimen is not as robust as most of the females represented in photographs we have received.
¶ Posted 03 July 2011 § ‡ ° Thin Beetle
Flower Longhorn
Thin Beetle
Location: Massachusetts
July 2, 2011 2:46 pm
There have been lots of these beetles on my dad’s rose bushes, but they don’t appear to be doing any harm to the roses. If you get close to them or disturb the plant they are on, they will fly away quickly.
Signature: Denny P
Flower Longhorn
Hi Denny,
This is one of the Flower Longhorns in the subfamily Lepturinae. We browsed through the pages of BugGuide and we believe we have correctly identified your beetle as Strangalia famelica. BugGuide notes: “famelica is Latin for ‘famished, starved’, likely referring to the attenuated abdomen.” There are two subspecies and Strangalia famelica famelica can be found east of the Appalachian Mountains. Flower Longhorns feed on nectar and pollen and they do not harm the flowers as your email has indicated.
Flower Longhorn
¶ Posted 03 July 2011 § ‡ ° Help indentifying bug
Location: Virginia Beach, VA in the sand
June 30, 2011 12:31 pm
Hi, found the attached bug in at the beach on Virginia Beach, VA.
The bug had wings but could not fly due to the wind.
I took him to a bush on the boardwalk and wanted to know if he would survive there.
He also had trouble walking through the hairs of my arm.
Many thanks,
Signature: Viko
Beetle
Hi Viko,
We seem to recall encountering this beetle on BugGuide when trying to research something else, but we can’t recall where to start looking. We didn’t think it could be a Cerambycid, but it sure looks like Psyrassa pertenuis which we located on BugGuide and furthermore, you are in the range according to the data page on bugGuide.
Whats that bug
Location: Arcachon, Cote d’Argent, France
July 2, 2011 5:11 am
Found on a beach at Cote d’Argent, South west of Bordeaux, France and possibly more significantly near one of Europe’s biggest pine forest
Signature: Eric cookney
Capricorn from France
Hi Eric,
This is a member of the genus Monochamus, and in North America, they are called Pine Sawyers. The larvae are wood borers in pine trees, generally in trees that are damaged by fire, storm or disease. We are having trouble determining the species. We believe it may be a male Monochamus sartor, which is pictured on Wikimedia, or perhaps Monochamus galloprovincialis which may be found on the waldwissen website.
Correction Courtesy of Mardikavana
This isn’t monochamus. This is some kind of Cerambyx. Maybe Cerambyx velutinus or cerambyx cerdo if you were really lucky.
Ed. NOte: Here is a photo of Cerambyx cerdo from NaturePHoto for comparison.
¶ Posted 02 July 2011 § ‡ ° Broad-Necked Root Borer
Location: West Milford, NJ
July 1, 2011 11:45 pm
Looks like a Broad-Necked Root Borer to me. Kudos to your site! I looked at three other sites and maybe 50 pages of beetle pics to no avail. This site made it easy or I guessed really good on the second beetle choice I made. So here’s a photo of top and bottom. About 2 inches long and scary. It was doing its ovipositor thing into the soil of my garden when I found it and figured out what it was up to. Made the wife fetch the camera for me so I could ID it later. This was third such critter I spotted and the first time since we moved here 3.5 years ago.
Signature: -Stan [Farmer Gray Beard]
Broad-Necked Root Borer
Hi Stan,
We are happy to hear our website was helpful. We have gotten significantly more reports this year of Root Borers, so we believe we made a good decision when we chose the Broad-Necked Root Borer as the Bug of the Month for July 2011.
¶ Posted 02 July 2011 § ‡ ° 
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