Cottonwood Borer

Description:

Look at the size of this thing, it was bigger than a quater! This is a cottonwood borer, which kinda makes me sad because cottonwoods are our state tree. The female lays eggs in the roots and the young eat the roots and other parts of the tree. This is detrimental to young trees but adult trees tend to be okay. The only beetle in the genus plectrodera.

Habitat:

Eastern US.