Insects and Spiders - native

Golden Buprestid Beetle (Buprestis aurulenta) on Sep 22, 2024

Submitter has sample

Description of specimen

these look like adults:
- about 1/2" long by 1/8" wide - pointy oblong,
- a bright metallic shiny emerald green top (wings) with red coppery stripes along the wing edges,
- shinny coppery underside (abdomen)

Commentary

Thank you for your report! This is not EAB. It's a native member of the Metallic Wood-boring beetle family, the Golden Buprestid, Buprestis aurulenta. These beetles are larger and less slender than EAB. They are not tree killers. Their grubs live in dead conifers.

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
Sept. 23, 2024, 2:02 a.m.

Resources

Golden Buprestid Beetle information from iNaturalist

Location

Emerald Ash Borer:

1 was dead and the second one was alive.
Both were in my four year old stack of fir rounds I was splitting into firewood.
The pile was just off the east side of my house in the second drive.

Expert Reviewer

Tom Valente
Oregon Department of Agriculture

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