Subject: Wood Borer?
Location: Southern California (Riverside)
March 22, 2015 9:50 am
We found this bug on our picnic table. I think it’s a wood borer of some kind. We live in southern California and there have been infestations of wood borers wreaking havoc in our mountain communities. Curious if this is the same type.
Signature: K. Brown
Dear K Brown,
Your Longhorned Borer Beetle is a wood borer in the larval stage, and we believe we have correctly identified it as Synaphaeta guexi based on images posted to BugGuide, but alas, there is no information particular to the species provided there. Encyclopedia of Life calls it a Spotted Tree Borer, and iNaturalist indicates: “the only species in the genus Synaphaeta. It was described by LeConte in 1852.” As this is a native species, we do not believe it to be the subject of infestation in your community.