Arthur has observed a few of these on his property, which means there’s probably some dead timber nearby, food for the wood-boring larvae. If you take a closer look you will notice the long, parallel-sided elytra (hardened forewings), intricately textured with flat scales and raised bumps. Reportedly, they are slow fliers, but usually hover just out of reach. And are “Known to be attracted to chlorine bleach,” which definitely piqued our interest. According to Merill A. Peterson, “Although these beetles are usually encountered in small numbers, males sometimes aggregate around freshly bleached laundry, presumably because there is a chemical in the bleach that is similar to the female pheromones.”

Size: The species is sexually dimorphic, with the rarely collected females being much larger than males. Males vary in size between 9.6 and 12.5 mm.

Photo by: Arthur Potts on 5/26/22 along the Bull River in Sanders County, MT