A Beautiful Beetle that I can’t Identify
April 16, 2010
First spotted this beautiful ‘beetle’ (I think) on the outside of my patio door. He flew away before I got a picture! Hand sketched from memory and searched this website and others for his name but no match was found.
After mowing today (4/16/2010) happened to see another one on my garbage can behind my garage. Captured (him) into a plastic jar and took several close-ups before releasing him UNHARMED. As I let him go near the garbage can I saw another one there at the same place that I captured him (feremones?). Pictures are of the captured one in the plastic jar and the free one on top of (blue) garbage can.
farmer don
Southeast Missouri, Mississippi County
Dear Farmer Don,
You are our kind of guy. Your beautiful beetle is a Red Headed Ash Borer, Neoclytus acuminatus. According to BugGuide: “Larvae feed on the sapwood of ash and other hardwoods, and even occasionally on vines and shrubs. Larvae are commonly found feeding in downed timber with the bark left on.” The adults are often attracted to UV lights.
Mr. Marlos,
Thank you so very much for your assistance. It was a tedious process to attempt identification using my dial-up internet connection. Hundreds of pictures of bugs sometimes took hours to load…. so you’ve saved me a lot of time!
Hardly a week goes by on my rural, wooded 2.5 acres without my seeing some new and unusual bug. I often carry a 10x hand lens to take a closer look at their tiny features. Several days ago I discovered evidence of burying beetles in my backyard.. they had almost completely buried a black bird in the soft sand. (The black bird was raiding the nests of ‘my’ songbirds when a .177 caliber pellet ended his nefarious deed!)
Thanks again for your service!
Regards,
Don Laughlin (Not really a farmer!)
Dear Not Really a Farmer Don,
Thanks for the update. We do not nostalgically remember the days when we had to update our website using dial-up, and we are thankful that we now have high speed cable internet connectivity. We wish you had sent photos of the Burying Beetles.