Palo Verde Root Borer

The Palo Verde Root Borer used to creep me out when I was a youngster.

A friend on our local goats group found some grubs and wondered what they might be. A list member positively identified the grubs as being the grub to Japanese beetles then posted a link to the Stag beetle (Lucanus cervus).

Naturally this aroused my curiosity (because how can one be so certain of a grub's identification with a grainy image and there are MANY types of grubs?) and I began researching myself, to come up with not a correction to this member's post, but a new one of my own with the correct information.

One of my coworkers mentioned something about doing research online and getting paid for it and I was thinking today, I think I'm pretty good at researching. I wonder how much it pays?

I found a really cool insect identification website, Bug Guide which shows lots of identification pictures of insects. Sometimes your bug might not look exactly like the one in the photograph, so it is very helpful when there are LOTS of images with which to compare.

I learned that many beetle larvae look like grubs. I suspect the grubs in question were the Palo Verde Root Borer since it is native to Arizona.

1. Palo Verde Root Borer (Derobrachus geminatus)
This is the HUGE black beetle that we find flying around in the early evenings in Arizona. When Iwas a

And also from Maricopa County Cooperative Extension Home Horticulture.

Some states seem to have their own version. The Southern California version, the Pine Sawyer (long-horned beetle family (Cerambycidae)).

This page has a lot of people talking about the huge black beetle:

2. Japanese Beetles:
However, this site does not indicate that this beetle is infested in Arizona, at least not at the time the webpage was created.

3. Stag Beetles

Finally, this page has nothing but grubs.

They could also be the grub of Scarab beetles.