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metallic borer?
Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 6:29 AM
Found this beauty on my deck. Think he is dead. Should I worry that he has left behind survivors that are eating my deck? It is pressure treated CCA pine. Thank you
Vicki
Elwood, Kansas
Red Legged Buprestis
Buprestis rufipes
What’s that blue beetle?
Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 5:48 PM
Saw this great beetle with bright blue legs on 10/5/08 on the Crawford Trail at Dripping Springs just east of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Only saw the one specimen and have tried identification without success. Would love to know what this beautiful specimen is.
JC
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Drummond
Hi JC,
We quickly located your Metallic Wood Boring Beetle or Jewel Beetle on BugGuide. It is Drummond’s Blue-footed Bup, Lampetis drummondi. According to BugGuide: “Range
Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas” and
“Season May to November, but most specimens in the Texas A&M University Insect Collection (TAMUIC) from June through August.” The Texas Beetle Information page lists host plants as Mesquite, Guajillo, Pecan and Chinese elm.
Large, yellow, very impressive jungle beetle
The beast was huge – like a small cell phone. Brilliant yellow with prominent eye spots on the thorax. See picture. It landed on a friend and he now suffers from Post Traumatic Stress. Hope you can help and thanks if you do.
P.S. The specimen shed coloration from its wings when touched.
The Amazon (Ecuador)
N.R. ochs
Giant Metallic Ceiba Borer
Hi N.R.,
This is a most stunning photograph of a Giant Metallic Ceiba Borer, Euchroma gigantea, a species that is found in Central and South America.
What type of Beetle is this?
Hi
I came across this bug in my front garden on the weekend, my mom thought it was a giant cockroach but when i got closer I realised it was some type of beetle. I live on the island of Jamaica in the middle of the capitol city Kingston. I am a National Geographic fan but had never seen this before and certainly not in my front yard?
Maria A. Hitchins
Hi Maria,
This is a Giant Metallic Ceiba Borer, Euchroma gigantea. It is found in many parts of Central and South America.
Flat-Headed Wood Borer
Hey Bugman,
I found a specimen of what I believe to be Buprestis rufipes, the Flat-Headed Wood Borer. This guy flew onto my shirt while I was in a park near Olney, Maryland. He is about 3/4 in long, and has spectacular grey, prisim eyes that are not visible in these pictures. Hope this will be a nice addition to your excellent website. From a fellow insect lover,
Drew Villeneuve
Hi Drew,
Thanks for your gorgeous photo of a Red Legged Buprestis.
Green gold speckled metallic bug
This little guy caught a ride halfway across Nebraska on the outside mirror of our truck a couple of days ago. We made a couple of stops and I had kind of forgotten about him, but I glanced out later, and there he was – clinging to the mirror with all six(?) legs, his feelers blowing in the 75 MPH breeze. We can’t find anything like him on the web – can you help? Love you site, by the way. And I finally found out what it was that I had collected years ago at my parents house in central Nebraska. I found a little roundish beetle-like bug dead on the ground. He had green metallic wing covers and a gold metallic shield-shaped head covering with a shiny black horn curling up over his back. A rainbow scarab! The pictures on your site were a spitting image. Thanks!
Bill Richman
Lincoln, Nebraska
Hi Bill,
We are very excited to post your little hitch-hiker. This is a Metallic Wood Boring Beetle, and we believe it is Buprestis confluenta, a new species for our site. Metallic Wood Boring Beetles are much prized by collectors for their beauty. They are also called Jewel Beetles and Flat Headed Borers. It is wonderful that your photo, thanks to the mirror, shows both the dorsal and ventral views.
What kind of beetle is this?
Hi there,
My family and I were at Government House in Victoria and this beetle landed on one of us. We haven’t been able to find it in a BC insect identification book. It looked similar to the Tiger Beetles on your web page but it had much shorter legs than those. It’s body had a very metallic sheen to it. Thanks for your help!
This beauty is a Golden Buprestid, Buprestis aurulenta, one of the Flat Headed Borers in the family Buprestidae.
Bee-Like Beetle
Photographed in central Greece, May 2008. Behaved like a bee, too, buzzing and visiting flowers, but those sure look like elytra
David
Hi David,
We agree that those elytra indicate a beetle, but we are not certain what beetle. Our first guess is one of the Hairy Flower Scarabs in the Tribe Trichiini as shown on BugGuide. We will check if Eric Eaton has an opinion.
Update: (06/02/2008)
Hi, Daniel:
I suspect it is some kind of buprestid, but I agree that an ID may be impossible without more images to work from.
Eric
Help with ID, possible Metallic Wood Boring Beetle in Brazil
Hi Daniel!
First off, great website! I am writing to congratulate and say that I have posted a video a while ago of a strange big beetle found on my parents house in Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Attached are some stills of the beetle, some of them are on flickr as well. I had no idea if the insect was a cockroach or a beetle and on the comments for that video I was pointed to your website, where I could find some similar beetles photos, I am suspecting it was something similar to this other 2
Fabricio
Hi Fabricio,
Your beetle is indeed one of the Metallic Wood Boring Beetles in the family Buprestidae. We believe it may be Euchroma gigantea but we might be wrong. Perhaps one of our readers knows for sure.
Update
Daniel:
You are correct in your species ID of the giant buprestid. I’ve never seen a live one, that must really be something!
Eric
Update: (04/06/2008)
Edibility update: big buprestid
Daniel,
Hope things are good with you two. The big wood borer is eaten in both the larval and adult stages. Here’s a source and pertinent text. http://www.food-insects.com/book7_31/Chapter%2007%20Colombia.htm Dufour (1987 ) reported E. gigantea among the foods of the Tukanoans. The Tukanoan name for it is boopica . This, plus other coleopterans used were all woodboring; the larvae were preferred although adults were occasionally eaten as well. The dry weight of the adult beetle was found to be 3.0g. Best,
Dave
Black and Yellow Beetle
Hi
Could you please identify the attached picture of a beetle for me? I photographed it in the Lamington National Park Qld. Regards
Fran Jenkin
Hi Fran,
This is a Jewel Beetle in the family Buprestidae. We believe it may be in the genus Themognatha as evidenced by this website. The Global Insects site has even more photos. Perhaps our faithful reader Grev can add to this.
Update: (03/30/2008) ID’s
Hi Daniel,
Corrected ID’s follow. Readers, and in particular the contributors of the pics below, are welcome and invited to contact me re ID’s for any Australian Buprestidae, which I have been studying and surveying their distributions etc since 1978. I am always interested in new distributional data especially from remote areas.
This beetle is Temognatha goryi:
Cheers
Allen
Bug on Pine Tree
Hi,
I have at least four of these on my pine tree about four feet up the trunk. They are at least an inch long. The tree also is infested with what I believe to be Southern Pine Beetles. I live in Florida. Is this bug related to the beetle infestation in any way? Is it beneficial, pest, or neutral? Thank you,
Susan
Hi Susan,
There are many beetles that feed on pine trees, and this is one. It is the Sculptured Pine Borer or Virginia Pine Borer, Chalcophora virginiensis. The adults feed on pine needles, but it is the larvae that are most damaging to the trees. According to BugGuide: “Female lays eggs on scars in bark of living pines. Also sometimes feeds on downed logs. Larvae feed under bark over several years before maturing, may reduce much of tree to sawdust. Life cycle is two or more years.”
Joseph’s Beetle
Hi Bugman,
My 8 year old son found this beetle in our backyard, and we would love to know what type of bug it is? Hope you can help us on our quest. Regards,
The Hardy Family
Dear Hardy Family,
This beauty is a Metallic Wood Boring Beetle in the family Buprestidae. In Australia, they are known as Jewel Beetles. We beleive your query might have originated in Australia. Perhaps it was the posting date in the wee hours of the night, or perhaps it was the “au” in your email address. Please write back and provide us with additional information.
Hi Bugman,
we are in Australia, in western queensland. Thanks,
The Hardy Family
Hello again Hardy Family,
Now that we are certain of your whereabouts, we will try a bit harder to properly identify this species. We could not locate it on Allan Sundholm’s Buprestidae Home Page though Castiarina rolle is somewhat similar. The closest we can find is Castiarina gibbicollis.
Hullo Daniel,
The WA site http://agspsrv34.agric.wa.gov.au/ento/icdb/imagelist.IDC has hundreds of pictures of Jewel Beetles! Quite an amazing array. What do you reckon about this one? Themognatha pictipes
Kind regards,
Grev
Hi Grev,
It looks as though Themognatha pictipes might be correct, but the original photo sent to us is quite blurry. Castiarina gibbicollis looks quite different on this site. Thanks for the awesome links. We were going to pull this submission from the homepage and archive, but decided to give it a bit more time thanks to your response.
Update: (03/30/2008) ID’s
Hi Daniel,
Corrected ID’s follow. Readers, and in particular the contributors of the pics below, are welcome and invited to contact me re ID’s for any Australian Buprestidae, which I have been studying and surveying their distributions etc since 1978. I am always interested in new distributional data especially from remote areas. This beetle is Temognatha vitticollis:
Cheers
Allen
