...Or, "Dude, can I smoke that roach?" Here's the weirdest looking bug seen in my garden, from 2009, it was buzzing around the plants, and landed briefly on the wall, just long enough to get this pic with a cell cam, sorry for the low pixel count, but if anyone here can ID this beast, I'd be inclined to rep them heartily. It was about 3-4 inches long, could fly, and its back markings made it look a little bit like an alien with an attitude...this pic is pretty close to its actual size. It looks like something from the Silence Of The Lambs...Is it a Coleoptera of some sort?
I googled for clues I found it seems like a match unfortunately i'm no closer to identifying it it may be related to but it doesn't seem exactly like that I just googled for "wood beetle" thats what it seemed like to me and compared to like 5 pages of beetle, that was best I could do with my limited entomology skills, good luck
possibly Chalcophora virginiensis (Buprestidae) but yeah its a coleoptera for sure If this looks like a match to you Clacophora virginiensis it is OMG DOES THAT MEAN I WIN?
That is close, but out of range, the Chalcophora virginiensis doesn't live in the western USA, and the OP bug was in Northern California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, sorry, I should have included that info in the OP. It's a regionally specific thing for sure, there are are about 35,000 species of beetles(and thanks Stonerish, for the reminder)! That's damn close though. I think we're looking for a west coast relative of that type of beetle, maybe. There are a lot of pics I've seen that are close, but I've yet to see one that is dead sure. Here's the mystery beetle again..up in Northern California, where the girls are warm.
ummm i no entomologist but i heard there was forest fires or w/e in cali awhile back? if so wouldnt it made it a perfect area for that kinda of wood-boring bug to migrate to? idk just a thought.