Shiny Longhorn beetle in Central America
Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 12:40 PM
This beetle was found in my garden in El Salvador; he was perched on one of our palm trees during the mid-day. He is a good 3-4 inches long and at least 1 inch wide. The segmented atennae are about 3 inches long, he has six jointed legs and what look to be pinchers in the front. Can you please see whether you can find out what this guy is and whether he would be considered a garden pest? Thanks a lot!
Ashley
El Salvador
Hi Ashley,
Back in November 2007, Eric Eaton identified this tropical longicorn as Callipogon barbatus. We also received a submission in June of 2007. Both of those examples were from Mexico though the Coleoptera website says it hails from Panama and Guatemala.
Its me, the author of Coleop-Terra. According to Monné & Hovore the species Callipogon barbatum is distributed from Guatemala to Panama, not “Guatemala and Panama” (its one of the little mistakes which happen when you are trying to deal with the incredible diversity of cerambycids). The pictured specimen is most likely C.barbatum. As far as i can assess at the moment the complex C.barbatum/senex/lemoinei needs to be revised, probably the distribution area will change as a consequence 😉