Black Flower Longhorn on Wild Rose
We found these wild roses on our trip to Lake of the Woods on June 14, 2015. They aren’t as big and fancy as domesticated roses, with blossoms only about 2 or 3 inches across when fully opened, but they are pretty enough.
I believe that these are Rosa acicularis, variously known as the “Prickly Wild Rose”, “Bristly Rose”, and “Arctic Rose”. It might also be Rosa woodsii, but the pictures I see of that species show redder blossoms than these, so I think the first one is more likely. I didn’t get a very clear shot of the leaves and spines, though, so I can’t be 100% sure. The leaves in this next picture are a bit too blurry to be much use in checking the ID either.
The main reason I didn’t spend enough time to get good pictures of the rose plant was because I got distracted by this black beetle that was eating nectar and/or pollen from the blossoms.
It has the characteristic body shape of the “Flower Longhorns” in the subfamily Lepturinae, which are well known for coming to various flowers.
The closest match I can find is the species Anoplodera pubera, which is widespread in the eastern US and Canada, and are present as adults from May to July. So finding them on flowers in June is perfectly reasonable.
The larvae eat decaying wood from elms, walnuts, and pines. And since these aren’t exactly closely-related trees, I would not be at all surprised to find them on pretty much any rotting wood.
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Fantastic marriage of the two subjects and lovely photos. The water droplets on the plant and the beetle give it a wild flavor as if it was captured during a break in a rainstorm, itself a wild event.