Insects and Spiders - native

Metallic Wood Borers (Family Buprestidae) on Jul 19, 2022

Originally reported as Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis)

Submitter has sample

Description of specimen

A beautiful beetle, longer than it is wide. The shell is metallic green on top with a metallic reddish streak from the "neck" area down to the "tail-end". When it fell off of my screened window onto the ground, I saw it had some metallic red body on it's topside, under the wings, with a mix of metallic red/pink on the underside of it.

Commentary

No, don't kill it. This is not EAB. It's a native member of the Metallic Wood-boring beetle family. These beetles are larger and less slender than EAB. They are not tree killers.

There are a number of iridescent green look-alike beetles in Oregon that are not pests. I am attaching a link to the ODA EAB webpage with some photos of other Oregon insects that could be mistaken for EAB

https://www.oregon.gov/oda/programs/IPPM/SurveyTreatment/Documents/EABLookAlikes.pdf

Thanks for being on the lookout!

Tom Valente
July 20, 2022, 9:13 a.m.

Location

I have found a second insect that appears to be the Emerald Ash Borer that I was reading about on OPB. We do not have any Ash trees on our property. We found one beetle by our pool, and another on the screen of a window.

Expert Reviewer

Tom Valente
Oregon Department of Agriculture

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