Subject: Unidentified insect
Geographic location of the bug: Dummerston, VT
Date: 06/19/2018
Time: 08:50 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Beautiful, motionless, and about an inch and a half long. Who is our dearly departed friend?
How you want your letter signed: Amara
Dear Amara,
This is a Metallic Borer Beetle in the family Buprestidae, and family members often have beautiful colors and are called Jewel Beetles. Your individual is a Sculptured Pine Borer in the genus Calcophora, most likely the Northeastern Sculptured Pine Borer, Chalcophora liberta, which we identified on BugGuide where it is described as being: “from brilliant metallic coppery orange to dull black; extremely variable in size, dorsal sculpturing, and density of ventral setae; readily distinguished by truncate or rounded elytral apices, small size, and usually bright metallic, orange-green color.”