In an Inordinate Fondness for Beetles, Arthur V. Evans and C. L. Bellamy write that if you line up all the plant and animal species, every fifth one would be a type of beetle. I came across this beauty when I moved a down tree.
I knew I was probably looking at a beetle and started to research which one I had found. I quickly figured out I was looking at a beetle from the Long-horned beetle family, (Cerambycidae), but I couldn’t narrow it down from there.
A friend who was visiting the farm mentioned his Dad was an entomologist and I was able to send him my photos and he identified the beetle as a Brown Prionid, Orthosoma brunneum. As my experience indicates, Brown Prionid feeds and lays its eggs in decaying wood.
