what is good website or book to see images of beetles to identify ones name based on sight comparison?

Question

have a huge flying beetles with rust colored wings and a grey body, feather like antenas about 1 inch or 1.5 inch in length. Came out in the hot weather of 100 degrees, in southern Idaho RIGHT on the boise river, in a large wooded yard with ficus, maple, and apple trees. Already ruled out Spruce, and Pine beetles, as well as the mountain beelte, this is much too big to be one. I measured two of the beetles after killing them with Ortho home defense spray I was using for ants, one is 1 inch, another just over 1.5 inches. Help I need to know what to buy to protect my trees- if it's not too late.

Answer 1

The previous two answers have provided some excellent links that should help you find out more information. www.whatsthatbug.com, as still_learning_at_53 provided is a superb resource.

I suspect that what you have is May or June beetles, scarab beetles in the genus Phyllophaga.

While these beetles can sometimes build up enough numbers to become pests, your trees are not in danger. It is the grub of the beetles, that lives in the soil and chews on the roots of grasses and other plants that can cause problems. Neither the adults nor the grubs do damage to trees, and it takes very large infestation to do any damage to crops.

As you mentioned, the bark beetles like mountain pine beetle, elm bark beetle and others are much, much smaller. In general, the larger an insect is, the less harmful it is. Large insects usually take too much energy during development to be able to produce large enough numbers to become serious pests. There are a few exceptions (lubber grasshoppers, Asian longhorned beetles) but in general it's the little beetles you never see or notice that are the dangerous ones.

Answer 2

Well, I cant tell you exactly what species it is by your description, but it sounds like one of the Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles) or the Buprestidae (Jewel beetles) or possible Scarbaeidae (scarab beetles), the web sites I provided you with have a drop down list where you can enter the family of beetles, once you select Beetles from the main pages, look for pictures of members in these three families. After locating what you think is the right species, you should reference some government pages in your area to see if that species is of high alert. You may have to report it to the authorities, or they can give you some insight on how to destroy it. If you do think it is a tree borer, the best advice I can give you is to keep your tree in perfect health i.e. remove all broken branches that may be causing stress, fertilize, and water frequently. Most boring beetles prefer a tree that is comprimised in some way, so if yours is in perfect health, it may just be passed by. I hope that helps, Good Luck!

Answer 3

Here are some sites, hope they help!