Golden Buprestid photo wins Blue Ribbon at Canadian County Fair

Golden Buprestid photo
Location: Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada
September 15, 2011 2:24 am
We always called these Junebugs but, thanks to you, my photo has been renamed. I was so busy trying to get as close as possible without disturbing the beetle that I didn’t even notice the ant until I edited. I was lucky enough to get a blue ribbon at the local fall fair with the shot.
Signature: BeeCee

Congratulations BeeCee,
You should be proud of your award winning photograph and we are honored to be posting it to our website.  Upon examining the beautiful detail evident in your photo, it is easy to understand why the Golden Buprestid belongs to the family commonly called Jewel Beetles.  The Golden Buprestid may hold the record for the insect with the longest lifespan because of delayed metamorphosis that occasionally occurs with the wood boring larvae.  Several years ago we posted a photo of a Golden Buprestid that allegedly emerged from a cutting board after 8 years.  You can read the full account here. After we made that posting, Eric Eaton provided this comment: “The record age for one is an adult that emerged from a baseboard(?) in a Canadian building fully 51 years after the building was erected! Why milled lumber forces such an extended life cycle in woodborers is a mystery, at least as far as I know. Normally, the life cycle would be no more than 2-5 years.”