Cottonwood Borer?
May 27, 2010
Found this guy wandering about last night at a friend’s house. He’s has one heck of a grip & a serious set of mandibles. Is it in fact a cottonwood borer?
We’re located 50 miles south of New Orleans.
Lindsay
Southeastern Louisiana
Dear Lindsay,
You are absolutely correct. This is a Cottonwood Borer, Plectrodera scalator. This is one of the most beautiful images we have received this year. Your photograph put a bug in our head to produce a 2011 What’s That Bug? calendar. We last produced a calendar for 2006 in 2005. That was quite a project, but with finishing the book, we wouldn’t mind a small visual publication. Would you mind terribly Lindsay, if we wanted to use your image in a 2011 calendar? Your photo is exactly what we love in an insect image: that it not ever be included in a legitimate entomological text. So dear readers, is a 2011 calendar something that you would like to see? Please let us know by posting a comment to this announcement.
Definitely a visually beautiful picture. I would love a bug calendar 🙂
Dear TJOswego,
We like the calendar photos to have a very quirky aesthetic. Keep that in mind when you pull out the camera. Though it is quite lovely, your photo of a Clavate Tortoise Beetle is more suited to a traditional guide book.
You absolutely can use the picture. The reason for all of the bright colors is it’s on a class of 2010 plate since we were having a graduation party for my friend’s son. I’ve never seen these bugs down here before so it was too much of a great find to NOT snap a pic!
Thanks Lindsay,
We will have to look into the cost of this project before we seriously entertain publishing a calendar.
Would love to purchase a calendar, especially of photos like this one! Would make a great gift for kids in my daughter’s class – especially for hard to buy for boys!
Hi Bug Man
I would like to see a bug calander (my godson would love it). Anyway……I am going to submit a really cool moth photo, as soon as I am done here. Thanks
Thanks for your input. Doing a calendar might be a profitable way to learn the program In Design.