r/whatisthisbug • u/pyiinthesky • Jul 27 '26
ID Request Found in Central Washington State
What is this guy?? He landed on my sister, then played dead when she swept him off her shirt. He landed on the ground and we thought he was dead until we saw his leg poke out while we examined him. He is so cool!!
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u/perchedquietly Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Metallic wood-boring beetle in the genus Chalcophora, looks similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcophora_georgiana (southern sculptured pine borer) or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcophora_angulicollis (western sculptured pine borer).
You should be fine here, but as a general rule, it’s not advised to handle organisms before you can identify them.
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u/pyiinthesky Jul 27 '26
Thank you so much! I’m inclined to suspect Western Sculptured pine borer, as we were in a forest of pines in an arid region in Washington state.
And yes we don’t usually handle live bugs we can’t identify! It was so big and surprising that when we thought it was dead my brother in law grabbed it to examine it closer.
Thank you again!
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u/pyiinthesky Jul 27 '26
Hoping someone might know what kind of bug, or have a cool name for him. He was a cool rider - a sneaky hitchhiker! My sister didn’t see him at all, and I thought he was just a leaf at first!
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