Bug ID?

[Don P]

I was hoping to send this to a teacher working on a forestry lesson plan. They have a state recordholder red oak tree on the school grounds so that is an intro focus for the lesson plan, but don't think the lesson will stop there. I had this shot on the computer of what we call a bark beetle in a piece of red oak. I need a true ID. She has a smartboard for the classroom and I don't think this pic is good enough resolution to blow up very well, if someone has a better shot and a shot of the larvea they can donate that would be great  .

I invited Suzy to the forum if she has questions. She left here with the trunk and backseat packed with every Appalachian forest sample I could find in the barn, several kinds of bugwood, intergrown, encased and sectioned to the pith knot samples and enough chunks of 1/4 and flatsawn red oak for the kids to take with them.

While she was here one of the old timers came by and held court for a good 2 hours on the old times in the cove. Cutting acid wood, burning charcoal and lime, a couple of stills, a run in with the revenoors, a peddler that froze to death and gave Mike's Gap its name, and a few rounders. We went up to a charcoal hearth later and while looking amongst the shoots for some chesnut blight I struck out but we found one with nuts, I had included a board so we took a small branch.

If anyone has ideas or links that they think would be helpful pile 'em on here and I'll forward the thread.

[beenthere]

Don
Can you double up the file size of that pic so we can see what you are showing??

It's a bit blurry for me anyway. You are allowed twice the file size, if you have it available.

Will be interested in the comments you receive. Might think of something to add along the way. 

Good on you for helping out.

[Texas Ranger]

Lool up long horn beetle and see if it looks the same.

[SwampDonkey]

Looks like a species of sawyer beetle, or round headed borer, with those long antenna.

[Don P]

I think I understand, TR and SD are both calling it the same thing and I think I agree 
Family Cerambycidae - Longhorned Beetles - Round Headed Borer
The descriptions and pics seem to be about right. I haven't found an exact match but there are over 20,000 species from what I'm finding. The larvae look right from memory although all those grubs look about the same to me, white, ugly and hungry 

I'll keep looking for a good link and description to forward. That part of the discussion sprang from how the tree transports nutrients and I was showing where the bugs go to feed. I had some powderpost beetle damaged red oak with the tiny holes where they had fed in the sapwood but avoided the heartwood. This insect seems to feed even shallower concentrating on the cambium just under the bark but does go shallowly into the sapwood from my experience with it. Ambrosia beetles in maple (sent a sample with her) don't seem to be as choosy I seem to find them deeper, although maple has thicker sapwood usually. The borers seem to be after the cambium, the ppb's after the starch and the ambrosia's are after the flowing sweet sap. They leave as soon as the sap stops flowing, the borers seem to leave as soon as the bark is off and the ppb's never leave.

I should also link to the white pine borer thread;
http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=20329.0;topicseen

I can almost double up BT but its not much improved, was a kind of fuzzy shot to begin with, my old digital is showing its limitations. That bug was pretty neat, I had jointed the edge getting ready to rough rip the board, the barky edge was at one end and this dried adult just rattled upwards. I had the camera in the truck so took a pic.

[SwampDonkey]

Don, you know your stuff about the growth of trees as well as the rest of us bonafied, self proclaimed experts. At least I hope we are genuine about it.  But I'll make a quick comment.

Yeah just keep reminding yourself where the food is transported down from the leaves. The cambium (inner bark where cell division and differentiation occurs) and the shallow part of a log, the sapwood, into which some of the food goes to feed live cells. Then think of those poor little grubs fighting for their lives to take advantage of nature's nourishment. 

[Tom]

Don,
Google monochamus
Forest Images has some good pictures

[Don P]

Wow,
That is a great website Tom, Thanks  
I haven't found mine yet. I do recognize the locust borer from around here. I've been in their damage making firewood all morning and have positively ID'ed a few. From there the ants and then even a woodpecker had capitalized on the damage. Woody had himself a nest in one that had broken off.

It started raining so I'm back looking. With all those great pics I'm being stubborn trying to find that one oak borer. I backed out to.. family cerambycidae, and loaded the thumbnails then am scanning down the pages. I'm about 750 images in out of 1432 they have listed there. There's some neat shots. I had never seen them pupating before nor had I noticed eggs lodged in the bark, both things I'll look for in the future now that I've seen them.
 This is where I'm looking at the moment;
Hexapoda= Class
Coleoptera= Order
Cerambycidae=Family
You were suggesting Genus= Monochamus, the thumbs are going through those listings again now.

I also realize I'm trying to find one individual and I notice that individuals just like individuals in people have variation and I'm not sure what constitues distinguishing characteristics, so chances are I've already seen this bug and simply haven't recognized it.

That exercise is definitely educational. While we were looking at wood samples Suzy pointed to a defect and asked what it was.  I didn't know what had caused it. I've seen that as well, borer damage that had later grown over. I've been down in the kitchen and found 3 signs of the same thing on the cabinets. Its always fun to connect things.

[SwampDonkey]

A lot of the differentiation is in segments in antenna and presence of hairs on their legs. I hope they don't evolve retractable antenna or learn to make and use insect razors.

[Don P]

I think I may have found it
Tanbark borer, a bark beetle
Genus= Phymatodes
Species=testaceus (Linnaeus)

http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5205043
http://www.entomology.wisc.edu/insectid/insect_info.php?429


I like that if its the right one, there are more connections here. The insect was named by Carl Linnaeus. He was considered the father of modern taxonomy, he laid the foundations for our binomial nomenclature. Prior to his time there were some really confusing naming schemes and several different names could describe the same thing in the scientific literature of the day. He was a ministers son who from an early age loved to roam the countryside. His father was the first of the family line to take a family surname. He chose to name the family after the linden tree.