Subject: Metallic Wood-boring Beetle face, Dicerca lurida

Location: Upshur County, West Virginia

Stock Number: 07-24650

Comments: I find these beetles in the early Spring on the trunks of various species of hickory. The references also mention alder, but I've only seen them on hickory.

Once in 2007 I was sitting on the ground photographing one of these Dicerca lurida, when another one hit me hard on the back of my head as he blundered into me while flying.

I like these beetles as a photographic subject. They have a lot of personality, as this portrait of the "face" shows.