his comment: "Yeah, I'd say C. falsa is it. This one's a pain if you're not familiar with the species in the area. There are many oedemerids that look like this guy... or maybe it's the other way around..."

... and also for reassuring me that my initial confusion in thinking this was an oedemerid was not so unusual.

I just added a third shot to this series in an attempt to demonstrate the variation in appearance of pronotal coloration based on available light.

Well, that is fantastic news, thanks so much! Such a handsome one and very different in appearance than the others I'm familiar with around my place. I had my suspicions that it might be a longhorn, but I looked through the guide long and hard without finding a good visual match. I guess I was drawn in by the lure of the superficially similar-looking oedemerids...

Any sage advice for me on how to tell these two families apart the next time around?

Oedemerids have a 5-5-4 tarsal formula. Cerambycids, on the other hand, have an apparent 4-4-4 tarsal formula--it's actually 5-5-5 but the fourth tarsomere is usually too small and inconspicuous to be visible.

For more information, you might want to compare the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences' descriptions of Oedemeridae and Cerambycidae.

I read the same thing regarding the tarsal formula in one of my beetle guides. Sadly, it is not particularly useful for trying to determine the difference out in the field -- which is what I was originally hoping to get some input on. Still, should I ever manage to get some images which are high-resolution enough to discern the difference in tarsal formula, I will certainly put this info to the test! :-)

I'll be sure to check out those PDFs you referenced at the U of Florida site. Again, thanks for trying to answer my question.

No problem :)

a paralyzing question... now i have to think long & hard... hard & long...