Wattle-killer
Location: Perth Hills, Western Australia
May 24, 2011 5:22 am
Hi Bugfolk,
A friend pointed me to your site after seeing the attached photos.
I cut down a large dead wattle about two years ago and found these holes and exoskeletons. I’ve shown them to a few people, but not managed to find out what it is. To add to the challenge, the photo isn’t what the bug would have looked like when it was alive!
My note on the photo identifies the remains as about 8cm long (+/- 2cm).
Any identification or pointers you could provide would be really welcome!
Signature: James
Pupa of a Borer Beetle
Dear James,
This is a beetle pupa from the family Buprestidae, a group that is commonly collectively called the Metallic Borer Beetles or Jewel Beetles. There are many Australian species and some are quite host specific. We cannot provide a species name.
Wattle Tree with Borer Damage
grub in the wood
Location: houston, texas
May 2, 2011 10:24 am
I had a water oak that died a year ago. I chopped it down and was splitting the wood for firewood. This grub fell out. It was burrowed in the middle of the log and is about 2 and half inches long. What is it, and could it be the reason the tree died?
Signature: shawn
Round Headed Borer Larva
Hi Shawn,
This is the larva of a beetle in the family Cerambycidae, the Longhorned Borers. The Larvae are known as Round Headed Borers. You can compare your images to those posted to BugGuide. The BugGuide information page indicates this about food: “Larval habits: Most species feed within dead, dying or even decaying wood, but some taxa can use living plant tissue. Girdlers (adults of the Onciderini, larvae of genera in the tribes Methiini, Hesperophanini and Elaphidiini) sever living branches or twigs, with the larvae developing within the nutrient-rich distal portion. The larvae of a few species move freely through the soil, feeding externally upon roots or tunneling up under the root crown.” BugGuide goes on to reveal this about the life cycle: “The life spans in temperate regions typically range from 1 to 3 years, but cycles of 2-3 months to decades have been documented. Most of the lifetime is spent in the larval stage; the adults usually emerge, disperse, reproduce, and die within a few days to months. Cellulose digestion appears to be aided primarily by enzymes rather than symbiotic microorganisms. In many cases, Cerambycidae are primary borers, providing a vital ‘first step’ in the biorecycling of wood.” The other major family of wood boring beetles are the Metallic Wood Borers in the family Buprestidae. The Buprestid Larvae are known as Flat Headed Borers. You may compare the Round Headed Borers to the Flat Headed Borers by looking at these images on BugGuide. Except in rare cases, Borers feed on dead and dying wood and they do not infest the wood of healthy trees, so we doubt that the death of the tree was caused by this Round Headed Borer.
Round Headed Borer Larva
2
Giant larva in my copost bin?
Location: Burbank, California
May 1, 2011 5:39 pm
Hi,
We get lots of interesting creatures in our compost and I see many of these larve that are about as thick around as my middle finger. Last time I was turning the compost, I pulled a few out to take a picture and hopefully identify them.
I hope you can help, my kids and especially interested in learning what they areso they can tel their classmates at school.
Our guess was perhaps tomato bug larvae?
Thanks!
Signature: Curious Dad
Crawlyback
Hi Curious Dad,
You have Crawlybacks, the larvae of the Green Fruit Beetle or Figeater, Cotinus mutabilis. The name Crawlyback is discussed by Charles Hogue in his awesome book, Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, where he writes that the larvae “obtain purchase on the substratum with traverse rows of still short stout bristles on the back of the thorax.” The larvae do not affect lawns or grass. The bright metallic green adults are active in August and September.
Crawlybacks
Grubs and beetle
Location: Washington, DC
May 1, 2011 3:15 pm
I found numerous grubs and a few beetles nearby in my vegetable garden today. I wonder if they are related. Any assistance in identifying them would be appreciated.
Signature: Roy
Big Headed Ground Beetle and Scarab Grubs
Hi Roy,
Your grubs and beetle are only distantly related in that they are in the same insect order. The grubs are Scarab Grubs, most likely June Beetles, and they feed on plant roots. The Beetle is a beneficial predator, a Ground Beetle in the genus Scarites. BugGuide lists six species in the genus, and our money is on the Big Headed Ground Beetle, Scarites subterraneus, as the species. You may read about the Big Headed Ground Beetle on BugGuide.
Big Headed Ground Beetle
Gnarly, Big Grubs
Location: Southern California
April 1, 2011 9:20 pm
We were digging out our compost heap today and found a bucket full of these suckers. Chickens got a few of them, but we figured we shouldn’t let them at it in case they’d be bad for ’em. We live in Orange County, and the compost has been sitting about two years now. Any idea what these suckers are? Are they poisonous? Do they morph out to something beneficial, or should I just let the chickens have ’em? Any help would be greatly appreciated
Signature: Andrew U.
Crawly-Backs
Hi Andrew,
You have Crawly-Backs in your compost pile. Crawly-Backs get that common name from their habit of propelling themselves through soil on their backs. Crawly-Backs are the larvae of the Green Fruit Beetle, commonly called the Figeater. Such a plentiful supply of Crawly-Backs is a sign that you have a healthy ecosystem in your compost pile and the organic materials are being broken down into usable nutrients for plants. The Crawly-Backs are beneficial in your compost pile and you can see this posting from our archives. When the adult Figeaters appear in August, they may eat your peaches or figs or other fruit, and if they are plentiful, they may cause some damage, but they are beautiful metallic green beetles of considerable size, and we would never think of them as a pest in our home garden. Quite the contrary, we love first hearing them buzzing and then enjoy seeing them as the fly about in a lumbering manner. They really are beautiful beetles and you can see images of adults in our archives. We cannot imagine that eating Crawly-Backs will harm your chickens, however, we are a bit reluctant to give chicken advice. We had a run of back luck last year with our own chickens, the Fuzzy Bottom Gals, though we are going to try raising chickens again this year after making sure we buy vaccinated stock.
Crawly-Back
Big Fat Juicy Fella! They’re counting on me!
Location: Phoenix, AZ
March 29, 2011 10:39 am
My aunt and some co-workers found this big guy hanging out on a Bougainvillea bush in Phoenix, AZ yesterday 3/28/2011 in the afternoon after trimming abush. She called me and asked ” Whats this bug?” I’ll send you a pic. 
So, here I am, trying to fulfill my neice-ly duties. I love this website so much, and visit it every day… Almost. It REALLY TRULY, helped me completely and utterly squash my fear of bugs! I am completely enthused, and interested in them all, especially spoders, go figure. Anyways, thanks for this great site, and for helping scared peeps like me grow a passion for the little creatures of our world!
Signature: Sherri
Roundheaded Borer
Hi Sherri,
This is a Roundheaded Borer, the larva of a beetle in the family Cerambycidae or Bycids for slang. The adults are known as Longicorns, Capricorns, and Longhorned Beetles. See BugGuide for some comparable photos. We wonder if there is a Bycid Larva that feeds on bougainvillea.
Worm or larve?
Subject: Worm or larve?
Location: Santa Fe, NM USA
December 28, 2010 6:37 pm
I found this near a stack of wood on our porch in Santa Fe, NM and do not know what it is. It is about 1” long and milky white color. Help
Signature: Thanks, Jonathan
Flathead Borer
Hi Jonathan,
This is a Flathead Borer, the larva of a Beetle in the family Buprestidae, commonly called the Metallic Wood Borers or Jewel Beetles. We are unable to identify the exact species, and it appears as though this individual has been squashed. Beetles in the family Buprestidae are often beautifully colored and patterned, and they are highly revered among collectors. You can see some examples of Jewel Beetles in our archives.
Cool.
Should I worry about my house with these or are they mostly tree/wood pile guys?
Thanks,
JJ
Hi JJ,
You do not need to worry about Flathead Borers infesting your home. They are found in living and recently dead wood, however, there have been reports of them emerging many years later from milled lumber. The record, to the best of our knowledge, is of an adult Golden Buprestid emerging from wood that had been milled fifty years earlier, and we ourselves have receive a report of an adult Golden Buprestid emerging from a wooden cutting board that was eight years old.
you are great. Gonna throw you a donation.
Thanks for your help.
Jonathan
Gigantic grubs
November 19, 2010
Found these in our compost heap (and no you are right – I do not turn it over nearly often enough…). I’ve never seen or heard about giant grubs like these – they are placed on a standard sized garden trowel to give you a sense of the scale. I was honestly a little too grossed out to try to straighten one out to measure it though I know right where to find more if you need me to.
I didn’t destroy them all outright (my 1st impulse) just in case they are beneficial or morph into something gorgeous. Can you identify them for me? Location: Rollingwood, Texas 11/19/10…Thanks as always! Deb Wilson
ADD a Trowel Full of Grubs
Hi Deb,
We love your photo. You have a good cellular camera. We increased the resolution to make your tiny file larger, and it held up nicely. We hope that by making a reference to a recipe, we could get David Gracer to salivate and entice him into sending in an edibility comment. Though we are certain they are Scarab Beetles, we are unsure if they are June Beetles or Rhinoceros Beetles.
Thank you! I do have fun with my camera out in the garden.
I am fairly certain (due to the size) these are rhinoceros or ox beetle grubs. I’m basing that (though I admit I am lousy at bug ID) on the fact that I unearth June Bug/Beetle grubs out in the soil consistently in these parts. They are much smaller – about the circumference of a pencil and rarely more than 1/2 inch though in their curled in the ground state, length is a guess.
These grubs were in our compost heap, and were up to 3 1/2 inches long, with a diameter ranging from 3/4 to a full inch or more on the larger tail end side. Since I was thinking they were ox beetles (and therefore not out there garnering strength and numbers to launch a beetle apocalypse on my garden beds) I simply put them back into the compost heap after I took the photos.
If these grubs are edible (and I say that knowing how a person defines “edible” varies), then a few of them could make a fairly decent meal, depending of course on if you have to remove any parts, if they shrink during preparation, etc. And now I have to go look at photos of puppies and rainbows because I just totally grossed myself out.
Have a great weekend! /Deb Wilson
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