Prionus beetle

When my granddaughter Stasia is visiting and we're not spending hours hiking through the woods or swimming in the lake, we usually find ourselves on the swing-set I built more than a quarter century ago. It's held up pretty well over the years and still provides both of us with hours of pleasure. It also provides an interesting viewing platform, which is why Stasia, in between pushes, spotted this very large—about two inches, stem to stern—Longhorn Beetle. Cerambycids are common enough, and, with few exceptions, go about their wood-boring business as larvae with little resulting harm to local trees. Of course, we're always nervously on the lookout for an invasive and horribly destructive member of the Cerambycidae, the Asian Longhorn Beetle, a species that can lay waste to entire forests, but this critter that Stasia discovered, is a better behaved member of the ridge fauna. It's a Prionus Beetle, and it may well be Prionus laticollis, the Broad-necked Root Borer. I'm still learning the beetles, and I'm always grateful for a second set of eyes.