Subject: Identify this green metallic bug
Geographic location of the bug: Ranger Creek Rd., Boerne, TX 78006
Date: 06/25/2019
Time: 10:50 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Please can you identify this bug. It is about 1.5 inches long. Found on a wild cherry tree.
How you want your letter signed: Txbugboy
Dear Txbugboy,
This gorgeous beetle if a Bumelia Borer, Plinthocoelium suaveolens, and according to BugGuide: “Larvae are trunk and root borers of Tupelo (Nyssa), Gum Bully Sideroxylon (=Bumelia), and Mulberry (Morus).” Perhaps wild cherry is another host. According to Beetles in the Bush: “This species, occurring across the southern U.S. from Florida and Georgia west to New Mexico and Arizona, is truly one of North America’s most beautiful longhorned beetles due to its large size, brilliant iridescent green coloration, and super-elongate wildly-contrasting orange and black legs.”