The Geek in Question

Want to contact The Geek?
Drop me a line at tgiq.ce at gmail dot com!
Geeky Tweets
- @LorraineBrett20 Liar. 3 months ago
- @LorraineBrett20 You didn't just "hear" a different idea, you *endorsed* one. 3 months ago
- @tpoi I need a folder like that. 5 months ago
Blog: |
The Bug Geek |
Topics: |
Insects, Nature, Photography |
Flickr Photos
BugShot 2012 Crowd-Funding
Goal: $1000 (registration and half of the travel expenses)
Raised: $800
YOU PEOPLE ARE SO AWESOME! Thank you!!!
Copyright
All photographs and text are my own, unless otherwise noted. All text and images appearing on www.thebuggeek.com © C. M. Ernst 2009-2013 and may not be used without prior permission. See "About the Photographs" to learn more.
Yay – how many points did I score?
p.s. is that wood-side or bark-side? Doesn’t look like pine to me in this larger view – clues on the host plant might help ID the beetle.
It’s the bark-side, and it’s the same tree on which I found the Cerambycid larvae (the one I think is elm). I’m going to go back tomorrow probably and see if I can get a better ID on the tree (I can’t tell from the photos I took) and maybe collect some larvae.
You know, I thought the head capsule looked a lot like this Synchroid (I think) I found the other day…but they don’t tunnel, do they?
I think the physical constraints of their environment causes a lot of under-bark beetle larvae to look similar. Lamiines have an elongate flattened head such as the one in the photo, but it the live larva much of it is retracted within the pronotal segment with just the front part of the head protruding.
p.s. Synchroids do tunnel through wood, but unually more rotten stuff and without such well-defined galleries as in this photo.
Could be elm based on appearance, and elm borers do tunnel the underside of the bark – we’ll see how this plays out.
5 for story, 5 for characters and 2.5 for location (I’ll accept “larval gallery”). 2 bonus points for being a smarty-pants. 😛
Cool – 14.5 points in the bank.
Should I have said “Ontario” for location? 🙂
(and does that get me 2 more points for being a smart-a**?)
-2 actually.