Subject: Longhorns Beetle?
Location: Panhandle, Florida
April 29, 2017 8:48 am
This little critter came near me today. Before I removed myself from its environment, I snapped this picture. What has me stumped is the very pointy piece located opposite of its head. Stinger? A pregnant female? Not a beetle?
Signature: Living in the humid country south
You are correct that this is a Longhorned Borer Beetle or Longicorn in the family Cerambycidae. We believe we have correctly identified it as Graphisurus fasciatus thanks to this BugGuide image. According to BugGuide, larval hosts are: “numerous hardwoods, also pine.” What you have mistaken for a stinger is actually an ovipositor, an organ a female insect uses to lay eggs.