It’s that time of year again when large black beetles have been spotted in the Morongo Basin, moseying along the ground, or maybe flying drunkenly through the air. Ernest Figueroa gets out his field identification guide, to tell us all about the palo verde beetle…
Palo verde beetles are hard to miss—they’re fierce-looking large black beetles at least three inches long with long antennae and sizable pinchers. But they are essentially harmless—to humans. The beetles use their pinchers when they’re fighting or mating, but they will only pinch you if you try to pick one up. The beetles begin as larvae that live underground near palo verde trees for up to three or four years feeding on tree roots before they appear above ground in late July—just in time for monsoon season—and look for a mate.
