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Photo#263269
beetle on cactus - Moneilema gigas

beetle on cactus - Moneilema gigas
Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, USA
April 3, 2009
I've seen a number of these beetles in the desert here, but this is the first one I found eating cactus. Anyone know species and/or common name?

Moneilema gigas
with the thorn at the side of the pronotum and the light-blue band on the antenna - a Longhorn Beetle.
Eating cholla cactus is what they do - and lay their eggs into it.

There are similar looking Darkling Beetles around in the desert, and those you will usually see on the ground, not on cactus. Note their shorter antenna

Cholla beetle
Genus Moneilema