Saturday, September 25, 2010

Check Out This Bug

Yesterday, I got out for my walk around 2:30 or so and spent some time tramping about on our place enjoying the sunshine and early fall warmth. When I got back to the house I decided I needed to take a progress shot of the building site (which I'll post later - it's not just a patch of dirt any more.)  I got my camera out and set up when Whap! A big bug flew into my chest and then landed in my camera bag. It was a beetle with the most amazingly long antennae. It just sat there in the bag without moving so of course I had to take pictures. Look at the face on this thing.

I spent some time last night trying to identify it - the closest I could get was Monochamus carolinensis - Carolina Sawyer - but nowhere was I able to find what the range is of this species so figured it could be something else.  I found this awesome web site What's That Bug? and sent off these photos and an inquiry to them last night.  And they replied this afternoon!  I was semi-close and at least got the genus:  they believe it to be Monochamus obtusus.

1 comment:

Tom Hurley said...

I’m not positive about this, but I theorize that bugs in remote rural areas grow such long antennae because they’re so far from any broadcast stations.

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