Bug of the Day

Two longhorned beetles in one night, at opposite ends of the spectrum. On the left, we have the teeny, tiny, Eupogonius tomentosus. No common name, and a really bad haircut ;-). On the right, we have the brown Prionid, Orthosoma brunneum, one of the biggest beetles you will ever see in my part of the world.

For scale, the Eupogonius is resting on a single "wave" of the shingle, while the brown Prionid takes up more than 13 of them (including its antennae).

@crochetlesbian submitted: This fella was next to my front door last week! I live on Cape Cod, MA. Google image search gave me Derobrachus geminatus but the impression I got was that those were rare? So I wabted to ask a person 🫣

Google image search is possibly the worst way to identify bugs because it doesn't take into account your location! And often location is the easiest way to distinguish two very similar-looking bugs from photos only. Derobrachus geminatus is not found at all in MA. If you're going to use an app, I'd use Seek instead.

Google was at least right about the type of beetle - this one is also a prionine longhorn, but more likely a brown prionid beetle, Orthosoma brunneum.

Just got bit in bed by some little beetle bastard

Brown Prionid Beetle (Orthosoma brunneum)

Beast in my kitchen

what kind of bug would airy be…. <- couldn’t sleep last night because I was thinking of this

Brown prionid beetle, I drew it really quick

Rare bug post again showcasing some new guys I found the other day

For names I only know the field cricket and the brown prionid (big beetle) but there’s also a very small wasp and some kind of stinkbug here too; all of which I found in some pool filters. Because they were all still very saturated with water I pinned them as soon as possible and only lost a part of the cricket’s antennae.

Also a small story about the prionid: I once found one while camping and really, really wanted it so badly because holy hell beetle I’ve never seen before and they’re big. It was dead of course, brought to me by the campground owner while they were cleaning out sinks in this area so I fully assumed it had drowned. Here’s some pictures I took of it for reference at the time:

Obviously there’s some differences and I haven’t done research outside of finding out it’s name but some assumptions are maybe mine is the opposite sex? Or not mature? I’m unsure because these pictures showcase this one being larger in all aspects. So anyways, continuing with the story, I took these pictures because I was curious because again, new bug. I put it in a container with paper towels to keep it from getting rattled around because I planned to take it home to pin it. Come next morning and this beetle is very alive and glaring with a vengeance, it was surreal watching the way it moved. I ended up letting it go after a bit of observing because I don’t like the idea of killing it just to collect it.

Hey Snipes, ya know the hell those are? These dudes annoyed me so much in July last year that I was staying home to avoid being punched in the face. Was it too late for June beetles, wasn't it?

Location helps with these (even if it's just narrowing it down to country) but I reckon it's some species of longhorn beetle, possibly subfamily Prioninae. My guess is Orthosoma brunneum, the brown prionid, but again this depends on your location. :]

a large and upset man! brown prionid beetle, Orthosoma brunneum. turn the sound on to hear him complaining

Bug of the Day

Peek-a-boo!

(note to self: check shingles on shed for signs of warping :-))

@the-worm-man submitted: We found this guy on the window. We think it’s a Longhorn Beetle, but we did some research, and apparently they don’t live where we do? ([removed]) (please remove location) So I wanted to ask you- am I right, and should we be concerned?

Longhorn beetles are an entire family (Cerambycidae) with thousands of species found worldwide, so yes, you’re right about what it is, but no, you shouldn’t be concerned! This one looks like a brown prionid beetle, Orthosoma brunneum, which is native.

So I fell asleep in my living room last night and what I thought was my cat playing with my foot to wake me up, was actually this beetle the size of my thumb, crawling around on me. I had no idea what the fuck it was, so I looked online. It's called Orthosoma brunneum; Brown Prionid. These things are interesting actually, they're somewhat rare and are supposedly kinda new to CT, they don't eat when they're in they're adult stage and are completely harmless, they're only defense is the squeaky sound they make with they're back legs. They're whole point when they're adults is to find warm/humid spots to lay eggs in like trees and poles. Besides all that, there's not much info on them. All in all, I don't want to find any more in my house, I was nice to this one and let it go, but if I find more.. they're dead. #bug #bugs #beetles #beetle

[7/14] Brown Prionid, Orthosoma brunneum.

Found this beautiful beetle sitting on my windowsill at 1 in the morning, probably drawn there by the bright light at some point. Ended up mounting it next to my other longhorn beetles.

@bigborger submitted: No ID needed - So many friends from Ohio! I definitely have more I want to share but I couldn't find where the pics were. We have a Cicada (Dog Day, I think?) A Chickweed Geometer Moth, A Cricket with some LONG antennae, A Woodlouse/Sowbug Killer Spider, A Hoverfly with some pretty wasp markings who would not leave me alone at work, A Longhorn Beetle of some sort I could not identify, A Fall Webworm Caterpillar, and a Sphinx Moth of some sort (Virginia Creeper? Possibly?)

A great group of pals! The cicada is indeed a dog-day cicada. Tragically the chickweed geometer photo is missing! The spider is not a woodlouse spider but rather a broad-faced sac spider. Woodlouse spiders have SUPER large visible mandibles. The beetle is a longhorn beetle, likely a brown prionid beetle. And yes, the moth is a Virginia creeper!

@nerdpiggy submitted: i was out doing a late-night plant watering in Massachusetts when this huge baby stumbled into a bush. It seems like it was confused and attracted by the porch light. I doubt this short shaky video is good enough for an ID, but to be honest I don't even know what general type of bug this is! A beetle maybe? (Yes, I cut off the video just before it nearly took flight into my face LOL)

Lol hopefully no one was injured by the surprise flight. Yes, it's a beetle! Specifically looks like a type of longhorn beetle, maybe a brown prionid? They're quite large.