Insects and Spiders - native

Golden Buprestid Beetle (Buprestis aurulenta) on Jan 1, 2025

Originally reported as Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis)

Submitter has sample

Description of specimen

After containing the bug in a mason jar, I looked it up online. This does look like an Emerald Ash Borer. There were several charts of other green bugs, which this one does not look like.
It has green wings with a line down the middle of the back. The undersides are iridescent dark pink. It is about 1/2 inch long and narrow with large black eyes (large for a bug this size).

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.

EAB is not active as adults right now. We don't expect to see them until summer. 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
Jan. 6, 2025, 1:22 a.m.

Resources

Golden Buprestid Beetle information from iNaturalist

Location

We are on a large farm. We take downed trees and cut them up for firewood. This firewood was cut up a year ago. I brought several logs into the house put them on the fire and returned to the kitchen and found this bug on the door to the patio inside the house. I cannot say where the wood came from or what kind of wood it was as I placed it on the fire. All our wood comes from the farm which extends to the Santiam River. Forty acres are heavily wooded near the river. However, the cut up logs are stored at the far side of the homesite which is about 5 acres near Cold Springs Road. There are creeks, springs and ponds near the home site.

Expert Reviewer

Tom Valente
Oregon Department of Agriculture

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