Ten Lined June Beetle in Mount Washington

Subject:  Ten Lined June Beetle in Mount Washington
Location:  Mount Washington, Los Angeles, California
June 13, 2015 7:30 AM
Since we are in a drought, we are trying to be creative about saving water and keeping the garden from dying.  Though we are contemplating a grey water reclamation system, that requires some expense, but we have implemented several efforts to conserve.  We save shower water in a five gallon bucket and we save water from washing dishes in a big pot.  We then manually dump that water in the yard.  This morning while emptying the pot from the sink, we spotted this gorgeous Ten Lined June Beetle, Polyphylla decemlineata, on the screen door.  We have been in Mount Washington for twenty years and this is a first for us, though we are no stranger to Ten Lined June Beetles in Pasadena.  According to Charles Hogue in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin:  “They are attracted to light at night and are seen frequently at night in the San Gabriel Mountains and, occasionally, in nearby foothill communities.”  We are going to contact local lepidopterist Julian Donahue to see if he knows of any previous Mount Washington sightings.

Boris, our office cat, was quite enthralled with the large Ten Lined June Beetle on the screen door.  Adult Ten Lined June Beetles feed on pine needles, and there are two large pines on the grounds.  We didn’t want to disturb the critter for a closer look, but the antennae indicates this might be a male.

i’ve never seen these locally.
the closest location i can recall is seeing them on the carrizo plain.
nice photo of boris the toe biter, too!
Clare Marter Kenyon