A New (to me) Beetle

It's always fun when I find a new animal and have to do a bit of sleuthing to find out what I've seen.  My most recent discovery was yesterday morning, when I was doing my normal dog walk/wildlife photography session.  It was one of the chillier mornings we've had so far this fall, which means the insects were a touch more sluggish about getting up and about than normal.  This is a definite advantage for me, as I'm not normally a crack-of-dawn sort of person.

On one of my flashy clumps of goldenrod at the edge of the draw, I came upon this beastie, hunkered down among the leaves, looking like it hadn't decided to wake up yet for the day.

Recognizing this as a long-horned beetle, I took to the books and the internet.  It didn't take me much effort to find out that my colorful mystery beetle was an amorpha borer, Megacyllene decora.

That said, I haven't been able to find out a great deal more about this animal than its name and the fact that it likes to laze about on goldenrod blossoms in the fall.  It apparently uses Amorpha species as its larval food.  Several sites on the web noted Amorpha fruticosa (false indigo) specifically, and there are a few false indigo plants down by our local little creek, not too far away, which could certainly have served as this guy's nursery.  On the other hand, Insects in Kansas said that the larvae bore into the crowns of all plants in the genus Amorpha.   I suspect the latter is true, which makes me less than ecstatic, as I only have a few remnant leadplants (Amorpha canescens) on my acreage and I'd much rather NOT have them compromised by being munched on, however beautiful the muncher is. 

Time will tell.

In the meantime, I'm still interested in having found a new species on our spot of prairie.  And I'll close with this photo, for all of you who wonder where bugs go to sleep at night....

In this case, they bunk down safely tucked between goldenrod leaves!