Buprestis Aurulenta, Golden Buprestid

Day 317: First an update on the Alder Lake Fire...Christian, the young firefighter who has been my point of contact for the last several days, was called back to the line and his position of providing public information was turned over to an older gentleman from the Dept. of Natural Resources. Despite the fact that I was delivering a large container of chocolate-chip cookies for the crew at Spike Camp, the rapport I'd built with Christian as a kindred spirit was notably absent in my dealings with the new man. He presented a by-the-numbers scenario meant to mollify the concerns of locals, and despite a few leading questions from me was not particularly forthcoming. That said, I know when the wool is being pulled over my eyes, and therefore I will give you my personal assessment of the fire rather than the "party line."

The size of the fire has been reevaluated following an infrared survey and now stands at 173 acres. It continues to move eastward and up the ridge. These are simple facts. Spike Camp is being pulled back to Pleasant Valley tonight, and the fire is going to be allowed to burn to the east over several ridges as crews put in one or more dozer lines 50-60 feet wide between Pleasant Valley and the first ridge west of it. According to the DNR representative, this has been deemed to be the most effective way of stopping the blaze, and in fact that may be true at this point. However, it also tells me that they have lost control of the eastward progression and are now falling back on one of the contingency plans Christian explained several days ago, a plan they had hoped to avoid using.

Now for today's nature lesson! I've always wondered what these beautiful metallic green beetles were called, so after photographing this one at Paradise day before yesterday, I did some research and then submitted the photo to BugGuide.net with a tentative identification which was confirmed by one of the staff entomologists. It is Buprestis aurulenta, aka Golden Buprestid (pronounced "boo-press-tid"), a type of wood-borer which feeds largely on dead or dying trees, and on other wood such as lumber. It leaves an oval hole behind as evidence of its visit. This particular specimen was large for the species, slightly over three-quarters of an inch long. My mother always called them "beauty bugs" which, I have to admit, is a lot easier to wrap your tongue around than "Buprestid."