Subject: Please help me identify this beetle
Geographic location of the bug: Woodland, Washington, USA
Date: 09/08/2017
Time: 11:21 AM EDT
Hello,
we found this beetle on the side of our house on Sept. 7, 2017. I tried to identify it and from what I was able to find, it appears to be a Palo Verde beetle, but that doesn’t make sense as I live 3 states away from Arizona. Please help identify this beetle.
How you want your letter signed: Thank you, Mike Loomis
Dear Mike,
You were on the right track. Both your Ponderous Borer and the Palo Verde Root Borer are in the same subfamily, Prioninae. See this BugGuide image for comparison. Of the Ponderous Borer, BugGuide states: “larvae chiefly in ponderosa pine and Douglas fir.”