metallic wood-boring beetle

Class: Hexapoda (animals with six legs - includes all insects)
Order: Coleoptera (beetles)
    coleo = sheath and ptera = wings (singular is pteron)
    This name refers to the hardened front wings of beetles.
Family: Buprestidae (metallic wood-boring beetles)
Species: undetermined
Common Name: buprestid beetle or metallic wood-boring beetle (neither name is specific but this large species probably has one)
Date: 2001 August 23
Place: Guadalupe Mountains National Park
    Smith Springs Trail

Adult buprestid beetles often have some rather extensive areas of metallic coloration. They also have a rather characteristic body shape - blunt-headed with a long, narrow, parallel-sided body tapering to a point. Smaller buprestids can sometimes be found covered with pollen in Prickly Pear cactus flowers. The juveniles or larvae bore into various woods and are often known as flat-headed borers.

metallic wood-boring beetle

Thrincopyge ambiens
2001 March 06 near the mouth of McKittrick Canyon
Larvae feed in the dead flower stalks of Nolina and Dasylirion sp. (Nelson 1980)
Adults are known to feed on leaves of Nolina and Dasylirion sp. (Nelson 1980)

metallic wood-boring beetle

pollen-covered buprestid in prickly pear cactus flower
2001 June 02 along the Devil's Hall Trail

References

Nelson, G.H. 1980
   A Review of the Genus Thrincopyge LeConte (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)
   Pan-Pacific Entomologist 56(4): 297-310

Links

Note: This is a personal web site and is not affiliated with the National Park Service or Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Contact information for the author, Ron Lyons, is accessible through the Index Page referenced below. Thank you.