With antennae poised, it is a bit over an inch long and the black body is heavily punctate and covered with black hair. If you look close you can see that the 3rd and 4th segments of the antennae are roughly equal in length and are more rounded at the end than the later segments. These are diagnostic characters of the species.
It is sometimes referred to (unofficially) as the gooseberry borer because it feeds on Ribes, although I've never seen it recognized as a pest. It probably takes a couple of years to complete its life cycle and is not all that frequently encountered. This particular individual is hardly tarnished at all and seems to have just recently emerged. It's quite an attractive insect in its bold black simplicity. The habitat shot is from Dinkey Creek where I found the beetle but from two years ago when the water was much lower.
3 comments:
Nice. I found only a single specimen of this species during my years in California - I got it somewhere up around Lake Tahoe.
Thanks Ted. This was one of those times of just being in the right spot at the right time.
Thanks Ted. This was one of those times of just being in the right spot at the right time.
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