Wild Thing

Wild thing, you make my heart sing
You make everything groovy, wild thing
Wild thing, I think I love you
But I wanna know for sure
Come on and hold me tight
I love you ...The Troggs, 1966

I love a good mystery, and these two little beetles proved to be a huge mystery indeed.  I've been seeing them for the last month hanging out in my bee balm patch.  They are quite small (8-15 mm) and have a distinctive black dot on their "neck".  Today I saw a couple of long antennae waving around under a leaf, turned it over and - boom - bug porn!  Of course I had to photograph it.  And then I had to try to ID it.  I went through my entire 500-page "Beetles of Eastern N. America" field guide plus two other general insect guides - nothing.  I posted it onto a couple of bug id websites and got a bunch of wrong answers.  Finally the author of one of the best insect guides in the US popped on and gave me a hint about the genus.  From there, I identified it as  Oberea perspicillata - or in English, Raspberry Cane Borer. I'm feeling very smug at the moment.

Had a nice long chat with my parents this morning, and getting ready to bring Hubs' mom over for the afternoon. Sundays are for family. And, maybe also for a few insects and things...

The two male wrens are still here, but one has claimed the front of the house (and two nest boxes) while the other has claimed 2 boxes on the edge of the woods, about 1/4 acre away. We'll see...

Thanks for stopping by!
xo
Debbi