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This is the Main Discussion Page for a general discussion of a group of images related to a mating pair of this species.

This pair was photographed mating on the bloom of a plant with a cluster of small white flowers on Elk Mtn., Forest Rd. 645A, 11,209’ altitude, Elk Mountain 7.5’ quadrangle, San Miguel Co., NM. The exposure was optimized for the beetles in this shot, so the flowers are overexposed. The top view has a better exposure of the blooms. If anyone can identify the plant from this, please do so in a comment. I collected, mounted, and photographed them. The resultant individual images of the male and female are part of this group. In addition to this pair, I collected four males of this species west of this location on 18JUL2010 and 30JUL2010 on Winsor Trail (Trail 254) at about 10400’ alt, Aspen Basin 7.5’ quadrangle, Santa Fe Co., New Mexico on a Veratrum californicum (California Corn Lily) leaf, blooms of two different species of Apiaceae, and one while in flight. The common feature to the host plants is that they all had blooms consisting of clusters of small white flowers. A fifth male was photographed earlier on one of the subject Apianeae blooms on 11JUL2010. Please look at this bloom to see if you can identify the species. No other females were observed. Perhaps they are less numerous or exposed.

This species is found in Colorado and New Mexico, and "In addition to the narrowly dark margins of the elytra, the short recurved pubescence will readily distinguish this species from C. chrysocoma", as described in Gorton Linsley and John A Chemsak, Cerambycidae of North America, Part VI, No. 2 - Taxonomy and Classification of the Subfamily Lepturinae, p. 185 (1976)(1). The dark elytra margins are apparent in the photos, and a detail of the "short recurved pubescence" is linked as part of this group.

Note that this species was first submitted to BG only this year, but from multiple contributers. I had never seen it before this year, despite having collected beetles in the area for 20 years. I assume from this that it was unusually abundant this season.