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Dendroctonus ponderosae
Small black beetle found under bark of a fallen tree.
Small forest, under bark on rotten log.
http://eol.org/pages/696188/overview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pi...
Spotted on Apr 28, 2014
Submitted on Apr 29, 2014
1 Comment
Not a mountain pine beetle for several reasons, but hard to say what they are as the picture is blurry.
1. Mountain pine beetles are native to the western side of the Great Plains (the furthest east they come is South Dakota).
2. Mountain pine beetle will only attack live pine trees or pine logs cut a few days previously as they need to eat the live phloem layer. How old is the log? It would have had to have been cut the previous summer.
3. Mountain pine beetles are a dull, not shiny black with more pronounced grooves in their elytra