Subject: What’s this beetle?
Location: Bisbee (S.E. Arizona)
October 1, 2013 4:45 pm
I saw this trippy-looking beetle sunning itself on my porch this afternoon. I’ve never seen one like it before. It’s about 1 1/2” long with blue feet and iridescent blue on its back. Very beautiful.
Signature: Tamara
Hi Tamara,
We were going to post your photo with a family identification only, but as luck would have it, we quickly identified the species as well. This is a Metallic Borer Beetle or Jewel Beetle in the family Buprestidae, and when we did a web search of the family name and Arizona, we found Rollin Coville’s Buprestidae Gallery which had some examples of the blue legged Lampetis webbii. BugGuide has some additional photos and the information that the larvae feed on Palo Verde.
Update
After posting, we realized we had several similar looking beetles from the same genus in our archives, so we would not discount that this might be Drummond’s Blue Footed Bup, Lampetis drummondi.
Perhaps another Buprestid for your archives: Lampetis webbii. Photographed on Mount Ord,a couple of miles east of SR87
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