I had a couple of great days outside with my camera this week, and I saw at least five species that were new to me. I’ll share three today.
Above is a longhorn beetle living up to its name: Its antennae (“horns”) are longer than its body. I think this is Hybodera tuberculata, which is a west coast wood-boring beetle. It’s the larvae that eat wood and, in this case, according to one source, they enjoy maple trees.
I saw a couple of these beetles and they made me think about the phrase “coming out of the woodwork.” I’d wondered whether there would be more beetles emerging this spring because we had a significant winter storm that took down a lot of trees. Does tree loss speed up the metamorphosis of insects that have larval stages under tree bark? And, back when people would have used those downed trees to build structures or furniture nearby, would they see beetles and other insects emerging … coming out of the woodwork?
I found two of these delicate, yellow insects near a creek, on the underside of a leaf. They didn’t like my camera and kept ducking away when I came close. This is a stonefly and I think it’s in the Chloroperlidae family. According to BugGuide, the nymphs of these yellow and green stoneflies live in the water and the adults stay in vegetation near the stream.
Last, here’s a Festive Click Beetle. That’s actually its common name. I’ll write more about it in this week’s blog post for Mount Pisgah Arboretum. Many click beetles are solid brown or black, but this one has red marks on its thorax and interrupted yellow racing stripes on its abdomen.
I hope you’re able to get outside and pay attention to nature. It’s an inspiring time of year!
Ticklehead 