This beetle paid me a brief visit a couple of days ago, and then moved on to a Bidens bipinnata, Spanish Needles, apparently for a brief rest.



At first I thought it might be a Typocerus zebra, a Zebra Longhorn, which we have seen before. But it is glossier, without hairs, a much sleeker body shape, yellow head and antennae, and the pronotum has those two black longitudinal stripes. No, not a zebra longhorn.

So it seems to be a Strangalia luteicornis, a flower longhorn, yes, but no further common name that I can find. Very common, inhabiting deciduous forest margins. Apparently the children like decaying dead wood; the parents go after nectar. There are some nice photos at the bottom of Valerie’s Austin Bug Collection that show the resemblance between zebra longhorn and a Strangalia species closely related to this one.



As for the scientific name, I have no idea where Strangalia comes from but the luteicornis would probably be “yellow horns,” referring to the antennae. Valerie notes that the species she photographed was attracted to coreopsis, which we certainly have enough of around here, as well as gloriosa daisies, identifiable in the first of her photographs.