Subject: Black and red bug in Virginia
Location: Lynchburg, VA
July 11, 2016 8:09 pm
Saw this outside my apartment building this past weekend. What’s that bug?
Signature: Maureen
Dear Maureen,
This stunning beetle is a Red Shouldered Pine Borer, Stictoleptura canadensis, and it is also a highly variable species, meaning many of the images on our site of the Red Shouldered Pine Borer are more red than the namesake color variation you submitted. The Red Shouldered Pine Borer is classified as a Flower Longhorn in the subfamily Lepturinae, meaning adults are frequently found on blossoms where they feed on nectar and pollen. Larvae bore in dead or dying pine.
Correction: 07/26/2021
While researching a new submission today of a Purplescent Longhorn, we realized we had misidentified this individual several years ago. This is Purpuricenus humeralis which is pictured on BugGuide.